Star Fox: The Stowaway
by M1ghtyPen
Summary: Krystal adapts well to life on the Great Fox. She likes the ship, she likes the crew, and most of all she likes having friends that care about her. There's just one problem: She isn't the only new addition to the ship.
1. Chapter 1: The Arrival

_Well, let's get the ball rolling. This is my first attempt at a fanfic on this site, so be gentle. The story is mostly from Krystal's perspective, but sometimes from Fox's as well. I think I got all the ratings and content and whatnot right, but if you don't agree then let me know. I've actually got the next chapter or two done already. I might put another up tonight, or I might wait a day or two._

_This chapter takes place just after Krystal joins the crew on the Great Fox. In fact, the prologue details her first night aboard and her despair at being the last of her kind. After the next chapter or two the story jumps ahead to after the events of _Starfox: Assault_, so don't be confused when it happens. This story is going to deal with the relationship between Fox and Krystal, but there will also be action. It will either offend or please everyone!_

_So…uh…go ahead and see what you think. I'll try and respond to comments, but I'm notorious for not paying attention to this sort of thing, so please be patient. Oh, and I had quite a time trying to get the document right in the document manager. Nothing makes you feel like a moron like struggling with something that's so easy to solve...____

* * *

_

Prologue:

Krystal sat still, legs crossed and eyes closed, and emptied her mind. It wasn't easy by any stretch of the imagination. She felt strange in her new quarters, surrounded by cold metal and lifeless space. She had grown used to Sauria during her brief time there and the emptiness of space was now unfamiliar to her.

Not that the "void" was completely empty. Fox, Falco, Peppy, and Slippy were all present aboard the Great Fox. They stuck out against the emptiness, four blips of thought that she could use to anchor herself.

And she badly needed to be anchored. Leaving her home planet had been…painful. She was in all likelihood the only surviving member of her species, and felt very alone. One day those feelings would become less raw, but for now they were unbearable. She had been caught up in the episode on Sauria, the distress signal and her subsequent imprisonment, and so had managed to shut away her grief for a while.

Now there was nothing to distract her. Krystal had always been proud of her meditative techniques, but even they failed her. She decided that there were no shortcuts when it came to dealing with grief. The only thing left to her was to lay on her bed (far too soft after Sauria) and cry, so she did.

Four little spots of consciousness, of rational and reasonable thought patterns. It was all she had, and it didn't seem like much.

* * *

Three weeks passed as Krystal became acquainted with the Great Fox and its crew. They didn't know how to treat her at first, evidently convinced that she was an unlettered barbarian woman. She couldn't honestly say that she blamed them. First impressions were important and arriving in a seashell bikini would not engender confidence in her sophistication.

It was hardly her fault that her flight suite had caught fire on arrival ("Fire resistant my fuzzy backside!" she remembered grumbling), or that a society composed of dinosaurs had little use for clothing. Fortunately a stop at an inhabited planet was not too far out of the way and the crew graciously chipped in and bought her several outfits that were less revealing.

After a quick stop at Corneria, during which Krystal was completely overwhelmed by alien culture, they headed back out into space to aid the cleanup efforts currently underway.

"Cleanup effort" was a nice way to say "let's see what pieces we have left after a gigantic war that we came within inches of losing." There were still pockets of soldiers loyal to Andross that couldn't accept that the war was over, and someone had to protect the multitude of repair vessels needed to get the system's collective infrastructure back on its feet. The military or space force or whatever Fox's people called their armed forces certainly wasn't up to the job, so any ship capable of discharging a weapon was drafted into the effort.

The crew settled into life as underpaid bodyguards rather well, or so Krystal thought. The only snag was Falco, who chaffed at the idea of anything so passive. His antics were a constant annoyance, but occasionally made her laugh. She once walked into the dining area to find him bitterly throwing darts at a picture of an enemy spacecraft with a curly moustache and a monocle drawn on it.

Apart from the ego of the group being a little damaged, life was good. Krystal had insisted on learning to pilot an R-wing and was developing her skills at an agonizingly slow pace. Fox had assured her that she was learning quickly, and her telepathy told her that he was being honest, but she suspected him of misleading her all the same. No matter how hard she trained Fox and Falco could still run rings around her.

Getting to know the crew was more difficult than she had anticipated. While her own kind were open with their thoughts and feelings, secrecy was extremely common in this new culture. People were so adept at hiding their true intentions that it could almost balk her telepathic skills.

She had to do things the hard way, but that was rewarding in its own way. Slippy was kind, if a little odd, while Falco obviously filled the role of the team's "bad boy". Peppy was Fox's surrogate father and behaved as such.

Fox was…well, something entirely unique. She liked spending time around him and told herself that it was out of gratitude and not a growing affection that was entirely inappropriate. They were, after all, two different species.

Regardless of how she felt about any one member, team Starfox was becoming her new family and she had no choice but to accept them. The alternative was to go back to being alone. She didn't think she could bear that.

"Babysitting is boring," Falco grumbled as he reclined in his deck chair. Krystal was currently the only member of the team on duty, but Falco had nothing else to do and was trying his best to brighten her day with a little company. Or so he claimed.

"That may be, but the effort to restore the Lylat system to its original strength is almost as important as the war waged to defend it. After all, it wouldn't do to let the next conflict wipe us out because we didn't bother to rebuild."

Falco smiled slyly. "You said 'we' again," he teased.

Krystal thought about the correct phrase, then said "Sue me." Falco chuckled and went back to looking out the viewport and sighing heavily. The bridge's intercom beeped and Krystal punched the transmission through. "What is it Slippy?"

"I'm picking up some strange anomalies in the engines" the toad said. "I need to pop the hatch on one of the reactors to take a look. That means the ship will go dark for a few minutes while I'm tinkering with it. You might want to let our friends know."

"Copy that," Krystal said, then opened a communications channel to the repair vessels currently entrusted to the Great Fox's protection. "Attention all units, this is the Great Fox transmitting a code…uh, yellow technical signal. Please stand by while mechanical problems are addressed."

Falco cocked an eyebrow. "You said the wrong color."

"Blue!" Krystal hastily amended. "This is a code BLUE technical signal! Our reactors are in absolutely no danger of exploding. Please don't panic."

"Very professional" Falco laughed. "Are you okay? You look tired."

"I didn't sleep well," she said. "Bad dreams I think. I couldn't remember them when I woke up." She tried to smile and pass off her weariness as a passing thing, but the truth was that she hadn't had a good night's rest in three days.

Falco saw right through her. "You're a little too shaken for just one bad night." He took an awkward breath and said "You know, I've never made any secret of what I did before going to flight school. I was working with some really bad people. I used to have nightmares about it from time to time. It helps to think about it by the light of day."

"We're in space," Krystal pointed out. "Day is whenever we want it to be."

"You know what I mean. Write it down when you wake up so you'll remember and read it later. It might help."

Krystal smiled and almost thanked him, but the intercom interrupted her. "I think we have a problem," Slippy said. "Someone's been messing with the cooling systems. There's no way everything could be this out of whack by accident."

"You saying one of us is responsible?" Falco asked. "If so, then who? Nobody spends much time in the engine rooms. Heck, even you rarely go down there Slip."

"Exactly right," Slippy said. "I can verify for a fact that it wasn't any of us. All of our whereabouts were accounted for when I detected the irregularity. That means it was someone else. We have a stowaway. I've sealed off every maintenance corridor on the ship since all others are monitored remotely. Get everyone together, because whoever it is knows what he's doing."


	2. Chapter 2: The Experiment

__

Well, it couldn't hurt to post this now rather than later. Someone mentioned that the story was running a little slow and was on the dry side? I added foreshadowing to this chapter. That's…sort of an improvement? Maybe? Anyway, this is the last chapter set after the events of Starfox: Adventures_. After this it's all set after _Command_._

_And is it just me, or do "sensors" on space ships always utterly fail at their jobs in science fiction stories? It's like the cliché of an action hero never running out of bullets until its inconvenient; they work until you really need them, then someone is fooling them. Think of all the times it happened on _Star Trek_._

* * *

"First thing first," Fox said, "Weapons check. I've got my blaster and a sidearm." The others were carrying similar gear, with a few minor changes. Falco was carrying a combat knife and Krystal had her ever-present staff. Slippy had his tool kit in case he found anything else out of the ordinary. "Right then," Fox continued. "Teams of two. Falco, you and Slippy take the port side of the ship. Krystal and I will make a sweep of the starboard side. Peppy and ROB can help us coordinate from the control room. Whatever you do, stay in contact and stay alert. We don't know that there's only one of these guys."

"Yeah, yeah, let's get on with it." Falco said as he hefted his blaster. When Krystal's back was turned he elbowed Fox and said "Eyes on the mission, okay buddy?" Fox turned a shade of red that made Falco's flight suit look pale by comparison.

The check of the ship began. Krystal moved with commendable skill, providing cover when necessary and keeping her wits about her. Ten minutes after they had begun Peppy's voice crackled over the handheld communicator. "Something occurs to me," he said thoughtfully. "What has this stowaway been eating? He must have been keeping to the maintenance tunnels or we would have spotted him on the security cameras, and there isn't much food in the engine room. More importantly, why wait until now to cause trouble?"

"Don't forget that it was caused in a very specific way!" Slippy added. "Any damage caused would be limited to our engines. We'd be dead in space, but not actually in imminent danger. Life support and all other support systems would still be functional."

"Why bother?" Krystal asked, checking out a corridor ahead of them. "Why not just blow the entire ship to bits and take an escape vessel?"

"Because they want us helpless," Falco answered. "Some people love an easy target, and others love a challenge. Then there are the really bad ones who toy with their prey. Hang on, looks like Slippy has something."

After a moment there was a fumbling noise over the radio and Slippy's voice said "Bad news: I just finished running a scan for vital signs. There are five people on this ship, no more and no less. We're alone unless someone found a way to beat the system."

"Is that possible?" Fox asked.

"Oh sure," Slippy answered calmly. "There are any number of ways to fool thermal scanners and motion detectors. Someone could still be lurking about down here."

"Okay then," Fox said, "Stay alert and finish your sweeps. Lock off each compartment as you clear it. If we find nothing, meet up at the bridge and we'll work out our next move." Krystal's shoulders fell a little as she reached out with her mind to confirm what Slippy suspected; the ship was empty. She would do her job, and do it well, but ultimately they would find nothing. The saboteur had either left or had never been there to begin with.

Krystal was soon proven right. Hours later everyone relaxed in the cockpit, certain that at least no one would try to kill them in their sleep. The entire ship had been scanned multiple times and all maintenance tunnels checked and double-checked.

"If I never see another maintenance hatch it'll be too soon!" Falco grumbled.

"Agreed," Krystal said, "But it was necessary. What's next?"

"We go over the facts," Fox said. "Slip, are you absolutely certain that there's no way this was an accident?"

"I'd doubt it," Slippy said. "The vents were closed just enough to cripple the engines, but not damage them permanently. The chances of that happening are…well, not good. It would be like tossing a wrench into the engineering room and having it accidentally type in the proper code to disable the reactor shields. I suppose it's possible, in the sense that it could physically happen, but in a practical scenario-"

"Okay, okay!" Falco said. "We get it. This wasn't an accident. When was the last time we made port, a few days ago? That was the last time anyone besides us was on the Great Fox. Could one of the crews managing the refit be responsible?"

"We've made a few enemies," Peppy added. "The cooling systems are computer controlled. Could someone have planted a virus?"

"If they did then it's gone by now," Slippy sighed. "No hacker worth the name leaves footprints these days. It's possible that someone designed a program to alter the cooling system's maintenance protocols and-"

"So it's gone and we can't find it," Falco interrupted as he squinted his eyes shut. "Lay off the techno-babble, will ya? Someone tried to cripple the ship and they failed. It's nothing to worry about."

Slippy sat back in his seat and sighed irritably. "I can't believe this slipped past me," he muttered. "An irregularity is one thing, but outright sabotage?"

Peppy smiled warmly and clapped him on the back. "We all make mistakes. Don't beat yourself up over it."

_

* * *

_

The Being watched in silence. It had no name for itself, no concept of an actual identity beyond the knowledge that it did in fact exist. It simply drifted, floating in a near-mindless trance, and the mental growth that it required to mature could take a very long time indeed.

_The experiment with the cooling system had proven that it could act. Now it needed to learn how to think. So, without anything better to do and no motivation to do it with, the Being relaxed and waited. It would wait forever if it had to, until the stars grew dark and the universe went cold._

_But it would not have to wait quite that long._

* * *

Krystal woke from her nightmares shaky and confused. She had a notepad sitting next to her bed and scribbled down everything she could remember before it faded from her memory. She showered, got dressed, and spent a few minutes trying to make herself look presentable in the mirror. It was a lost cause; she had lost too much sleep over the last week.

Her appearance shouldn't matter to her so much, but she and Fox were both currently off duty. That made a difference that was both significant and worrisome. Krystal wanted to earn her place on team Star Fox and she would find that difficult if she was distracted.

Fox was eating and watching a news hologram when Krystal walked into the mess hall. He tried to keep any errant thoughts from getting too loud, knowing that she was a telepath and thus able to pry into his mind any time she wanted. She was far too polite to do it on a regular basis, of course, but it couldn't hurt to be careful. Especially when those errant thoughts were far from being business related.

"Morning!" He said as cheerfully. "How are you feeling?"

"Very well thank you," Krystal said without much enthusiasm. "Please tell me you are not a morning person."

Fox laughed and took a bite of his sandwich. "It isn't morning for me. I've been awake for almost six hours. This is lunch." He paused the hologram and watched her pour a bowl of instant oatmeal. "That isn't what I meant, though. I was talking about yesterday."

Krystal smiled and punched a few buttons on the microwave. "Walking from one end of the ship to another was dull, but not terribly strenuous. I feel fine."

"Good." Fox scratched behind one of his ears with a very uncomfortable look on his face. "That sort of thing doesn't happen here often. We must seem like a bunch of incompetents running around space with our helmets on backwards."

"I wouldn't say that," Krystal said with the friendliest smile she could muster. Fox began turning red again, something that she found adorable. "Slippy makes mistakes just like everyone else. At least he doesn't get sealed into magical crystals for weeks at a time."

Fox put on a very frustrated face and rolled his eyes. "That happened _one time_ and people are still talking about it. Honestly, that was an entire month ago!" Krystal giggled and sat down to eat. She and Fox had the room to themselves and talked happily for a while. Eventually Fox looked at the clock on the wall and sighed. "Peppy had something he wanted to show me. I don't think he'd mind if you came too."

Krystal had nothing better to do, so she followed Fox to Peppy's cabin. Inside was what could only be described as a disaster area. Papers and photographs had been pinned against one wall and littered the floor. Krystal hung back as she surveyed the mess and asked "Is this normal?"

"Not usually" Fox answered. "Sometimes when he gets involved in a project Peppy can get carried away. It made him a great commander during his military career; he could analyze every scrap of intelligence on an enemy and come up with strategies no one else could have dreamed of." He looked around the cabin and smiled. "Right now it looks like he's run out of steam before he finished."

Peppy had fallen asleep at his desk. Fox gently shook his shoulder until the hare snapped awake. "Just resting my eyes" he insisted with an apologetic smile.

"You need your rest, old timer." Fox waved a hand at the mess taking up most of the floor and an entire wall. "What's all this?"

"What I wanted to show you." Peppy said. He pointed at a map with several areas circled in red. "Corneria has lost a total of five C-class combat vessels during the last eight years. Four have gone missing in the last month."

"'Gone missing'?" Fox asked. "A C-class cruiser doesn't just vanish. We don't know what happened to them?"

"The first one was hit by an asteroid when the shields failed during a training run" Peppy explained. "There was a full investigation launched. The last four have just disappeared and not one scrap of paperwork details the recovery effort. No one went looking for them."

"That sounds very strange" Krystal said. "I am not as familiar with your government as you are, but wouldn't it be their responsibility to investigate such things?"

"Absolutely," Peppy said grimly. "That isn't all. Civilian vessels, freighters, and once even a small farming colony have gone missing. The official position of the Cornerian government is that there is nothing unusual about this area of space. I made a few calls and found more black ink in five minutes than in my entire military career."

Fox looked nervously at the maps on the wall. "Something big is happening" he said. "Whatever it is, we have to be ready for it. We'll continue helping with the reconstruction effort, and once that's done we'll assist in hunting down Andrew Oikonny and his remaining soldiers, but in the meantime we have to stay alert."

Krystal saw that the circled areas were clustered around the very edges of known space. Something about the empty blackness gave her the creeps.

The day passed slowly with Peppy's ominous research on her mind, but was not an entire loss. Krystal later read over the notes she'd written on her nightmares and felt much more relaxed when it was time for bed. She was able to sleep well for the first time in days and made a mental note to thank Falco for his advice.

_

* * *

_

___The Being heard the old hare's theory, as much as it was capable of doing so. It understood that something huge loomed on the horizon –but not for it. The others on the ship would be tested, but the Being had only to wait. Perhaps afterward they would be weakened. Perhaps it would be able to take the ship for its own._

_Or perhaps not. The Being was not yet capable of apprehension or excitement. That would come later._


	3. Chapter 3: The Takeover

_This is the point at which the story jumps to AFTER the war with the Aparoids. The first part takes place only hours after the queen is destroyed._

_I have to admit, I was afraid that I wrote myself into a corner with this. Luckily I wrote myself a hole in the wall and made good my escape! This…uh, is my way of telling you that I closed a hole in the plot before it happened. Mostly I just wanted to convey the mental picture I came up with, I've been waiting all day for it._

_Action movie cliché number 12: The good guy's scars. I'm aware that the games never say anything about Fox having scars, but think about what he does for a living. He's been a mercenary for, what, almost a decade by now? He would have been in a good number of fights. Considering that he has enemies like Wolf, I don't see how he could NOT have a few good scars._

_So that's almost it. I PROMISE there will be violence in the next one. This is a fanfic of Starfox, and there hasn't been a single spaceship exploding yet. This needs to be fixed!_

_

* * *

_

The Aparoids were of great interest for the Being. It watched, learning all that it could as it had during the last year aboard the Great Fox. It noted that the old one, a hare called Peppy, had predicted the invasion months before it began. His foresight and wisdom made him dangerous.

_The ship was destroyed in the fight with the Aparoids, to the point that it was no great loss when the hare rammed it into a protective shield. The Great Fox was destroyed and the Being felt an odd twinge of sadness as its home was taken away._

_But the Being survived. It would always survive. It was more than a helpless wisp of thought, more than some pathetic boogeyman to be banished to the occasional harmless nightmare. The crew did not fear it like they should. That made it very, very angry._

* * *

Krystal couldn't help but smile when Fox refused to remove his shirt. His Arwing had been badly damaged during the fight with the Aparoid queen and its pilot had fared no better. Fox was bleeding from countless cuts and lacerations, and even had a splinter of what looked like part of his cockpit stuck in his arm. Despite the amount of pain he was surely in modesty was proving to be a more formidable adversary than the queen. Krystal, after some coaxing, was finally allowed to cut away his shirt with a pair of scissors.

Ordinarily someone more qualified would be administering such treatment. The team had been picked up by a Cornerian battle cruiser shortly after leaving the Aparoid's home planet and there were many qualified doctors on board that could have done a much better job.

Unfortunately, there were more critically injured soldiers than there were doctors. The war had been short but very brutal, and "real" doctors were all busy seeing to patients that needed more than a few stitches and some rest. Among the Star Fox team that left only Peppy, who knew a little battlefield medicine, and Krystal, who had learned from Peppy.

Fox's shirt came off in a sticky sheet of red that made Krystal wince. "Gods above," she breathed afterward, one hand covering her mouth. Fox turned around apprehensively and looked for a mirror. "Oh, it…it isn't anything to worry about." Krystal said. She placed her hand over a set of scars that resembled claw marks on his shoulder. There were more on his back and, when she looked, a set on his stomach that looked like someone had been trying very hard to kill him. "Can I ask what happened?"

Fox looked badly shaken as he clasped his hands together in his lap. "A very bad man decided that I was in his way. We had a disagreement." He raised one leg and pointed to the knee. "That's a robotic knee joint, but that was from a different fight. I've also got a scar on my other leg."

"What happened there?"

"Slippy tripped me going down the stairs," Fox said with a nervous laugh. "It was an accident."

Krystal tried to thread her needle and found that her hands were shaking too badly. "It was Wolf, wasn't it?" She asked. "He did all of this to you."

"Not all of it" Fox said. "O'Donnell isn't the only bad guy out there with claws. Most of it was from him, but the shoulder and right calf-"

"Why?" Krystal began, "Why do you do this? You're not even thirty years old yet and you've been injured so much."

Fox shrugged, wincing as the movement caused him a little pain. "What else could I do? This is who I am. I was never very good at sitting on the sidelines and I couldn't stand a long military career like Peppy. The only alternatives are mercenary or police work. As soon as I can I'm going to rebuild the Great Fox and keep right on doing what I've been doing for years." He relaxed –a little- and smiled shyly. "I do this sort of thing because I have to. I can't help it. Is that weird?"

Krystal was never sure what prompted her to lean in and kiss him. She felt him kiss back and her heart soared…until he tensed up and let out a low hiss of discomfort. The splinter in his arm had gotten caught on her sleeve. "I'm sorry!" she said hurriedly, "I didn't mean for that to happen."

"Yes you did." Fox smiled and looked regretfully at his arm. "I think we should continue this talk _after_ we've gotten me patched up."

* * *

Two months after the Aparoid queen was destroyed the team carried on much as they had before. Slippy kept the new Great Fox running very well, Peppy continued to supervise as the team trained, and Falco dealt with his boredom as only Falco could. He was a constant nuisance during times of peace, albeit a well-intentioned nuisance that was invaluable when situations went bad.

Fox and Krystal, meanwhile, were moving closer to each other at their own pace. They had taken to spending the graveyard shift together while everyone else slept. It was a good time to be alone, but there was still work to be taken care of. Conversation came freely and easily for both of them.

Right now, however, they were too busy for conversation. Fox was trying to free his arm from Krystal's grip and was having a difficult time of it. She had sprung up from the floor and snagged his shoulder with her legs, then hauled him down into an arm bar. He had never been assaulted that way before, but the end result was familiar.

"Surrender!" Krystal grunted, pulling just hard enough to get her point across. Fox tried to gather his legs beneath them and found it quite impossible. Whenever he moved Krystal's hold became just a little more strenuous. Fox was left with no choice but to tap out. Had he reacted quicker he might have been able to break free, but he had hesitated for an instant too long.

After their match was over Slippy greeted them in the control room. ROB was there as well, and immediately oriented on Fox: "My sensors indicate that Fox's temperatures are above normal levels."

Fox glared at Slippy. "You have to make him stop that. Please?" Krystal smiled and took her seat as Fox sat down in a huff. She and Slippy shared a look, and then both tried to reign in their laughter. Fox pretended to sulk, but soon a smile made its way onto his face as well.

Peppy and Falco walked in to find the entire cockpit overcome with laughter. "Nice to see we're all in high spirits this morning" Falco said. His feathers were a little ruffled and he looked grumpy.

"Relax Falco" Krystal giggled. "We were just…discussing the ship's climate." She frowned for a moment and asked "Is it cold in here? I feel cold." The room began to spin as she tried to stand up. "I think…I think I left something in the engine room…"

"Krystal!" Fox yelled as she collapsed. He leaned out of his captain's chair and managed to catch her before she hit her head on something. "Someone help me carry her to the medical bay!"

_

* * *

_

If the Being had a face it would have smiled. Krystal, lost in her nightmares, was out of the way and no one else could work against it. It was time to take control of a puppet. The Being had chosen carefully, knowing that a miscalculation could prove fatal.

_Over the next few hours a series of unfortunate technical failures seized the ship. The fighter bay doors failed, trapping the Arwings inside so that no one could go for help in the small, agile fighters. The long range communications equipment locked up and would not transmit, leaving the crew with only the intercom system. Finally, in a move that pleased the Being because it meant coming full circle, the engines malfunctioned._

_The Great Fox drifted through space, engines glowing feebly as they cooled. It was tempting to commandeer the intercom and make an announcement, but the Being decided against that. It was too much too soon. Let the crew huddle in their cabins and wonder what was happening._

_Let the toad panic as he failed to fix the engines, not knowing that the Being would undo his work the moment his back was turned. Let the hare wonder if his heroic life's story would end when the life support systems failed. Let the bird try and banish his nightmares now, when he was even more helpless than before._

_Most importantly, let the captain stand vigil over his woman while the ship and her crew desperately sought a way out. The Being would allow her to wake up when its work was done so that she could see the rest of the team fall to pieces. Until then she would sleep._

_A problem soon arose; the toad was starting to make headway with the engines. No matter how the Being assaulted his mind he pressed onward. He was growing more and more resilient each day. In fact the entire crew was becoming hardened to its telepathic nudges. Now that it was locked inside a puppet it found its ability to manipulate others greatly weakened._

_Well, the plan would have to change. The Being had other ways of getting rid of the crew. It could not kill them directly –yet. That would come in time because, while the toad worked to restore the engines, the Being was working on something of its own._


	4. Chapter 4: Unwelcome Guests

_Yay, space battle! I almost wrote an entire science fiction story without one space ship blowing up another one. That would have been a disaster._

_Speaking of ships, I still think of the Great Fox as the original design. Just…say that Fox was fond of the old Great Fox or something and had it rebuilt to the same specifications. Because it worked, and why mess with success? Or you could think of it some other way. Maybe you think of it as the mother ship from _Independence Day_, and that's fine. Whatever floats your boat. Err, space ship._

_Oh, and __**A CHALLENGER APPROACHES!**__ What, you didn't think I could go without including these guys, did you? This can't be a surprise to anyone. Wolf was, I think, the best character of _Assault_. His voice acting was well done, along with Panther's in my opinion._

_I know that you'll groan when you hear Wolf's catch phrase. Deal with it, it made me giggle. I never really thought about what kind of music he's listening to beyond "the classics". Space rock maybe? What do you guys think he would enjoy? Tell me in the comments. Maybe he's listening to the Star Wolf theme from _Assault_! I listened to that while writing this. Not that it's really relevant._

* * *

The Great Fox drifted for three days. Krystal lay still in her coma and Fox couldn't wake her. Slippy continued to toil away with the engines, certain that he was making progress but not showing any tangible results. Falco assisted Peppy in going over maps of the nearest star systems, searching for a way to summon help. ROB, meanwhile, stood uselessly in one corner of the bridge. He had gone offline when the technical failures began and no one could activate him.

The monotony of drifting was broken on the third day. While Slippy was obsessively trying to fix the engines Fox, Peppy, and Falco watched the view screens in horror. "That's Sargasso station" Fox said. Peppy nodded tiredly. "Our engines aren't working." Another nod. "The Arwings are stuck inside the ship," Fox finished, "Which means…"

"…we're helpless." Falco said. "There is no help to be had. We are completely and utterly without help. We all get it, but what do we _do_ about it?"

"Remain hidden" Peppy said. "Whoever set us adrift must have intended for this to happen, but he can't make them attack us. Our long range transmitters aren't working and the engines are cold. If we're lucky, we can drift right by them."

At that moment the antenna array crackled to life and fired off a series of short, unencrypted distress signals. "Terrific!" Falco cheered. "I always wanted to know what it feels like to be a fish in a barrel!"

The intercom snapped on and Slippy's voice filtered through the ship. "Guys, the transmitter array just activated!" He said happily. "It must have been a software problem. Someone's been fiddling with the encryption codes on the antenna. If I capture them now we can call for help!"

"Don't tell him" Falco sighed. "Let him enjoy his last few minutes."

Slippy groaned and, from the sounds that came over the intercom, tossed something over his shoulder. "There goes the radio again. Sorry guys, I wasn't fast enough to catch it. It's weird though, I've been at the terminal all morning and I haven't noticed anything strange."

"We have bigger problems!" Fox said into his communicator. "Enemy fighters are on the way. Strap yourself in Slip, it's going to be a bumpy ride!" Peppy and Falco belted themselves into the deck chairs and looked surprised when he didn't do the same. "Krystal's still in the medical bay" Fox explained. "I'll be back after I secure her."

* * *

Wolf and Panther both liked music, but they had very different tastes. As Panther opened a radio channel Wolf rolled his eyes and turned down the volume in his cockpit. "I'm not turning it off" he said. "You can deal with it. I'm sorry if the classics don't live up to your terrible squealing violins."

"The Cornerian Symphony is a group of highly skilled musicians!" Panther argued. "I fail to see how you can possibly call that atrocity a classic. It sounds like Hell in your cockpit and it's filtering through the radios."

Wolf kept the channel open and turned up the volume, smiling as Panther groaned. He was getting tired of the constant complaining and would have given Panther the boot ages ago if he wasn't so useful. Leon's voice wavered through the music and Wolf turned it down again to hear him: "There is a distress signal being broadcast not far from here. If you two are done bickering we might want to investigate."

"This is our territory" Panther grumbled. "Why not just get the crew from Sargasso to handle it?"

"They _are_ handling it." Leon pulled up an image of the fight and sent it to be displayed on their view screens. "The ignorant fools from Sargasso are the ones that started it and their prey-"

"McCloud!" Wolf exclaimed. "What's _he_ doing here? Why haven't the Arwings intercepted the enemy?"

"Would you like me to investigate?" Leon asked impatiently. "I can ask the monkeys to stop their assault for a few minutes. I'm sure they'll listen."

Wolf ignored him, having gotten used to Leon's sharp tongue a long time ago. He shut down his music and sent a broadcast to the attacking fighters. "This is Wolf O'Donnell of Star Wolf. Who's in charge here?"

A voice crackled over the radio. "That would be me sir!" A chimpanzee said. "Mike Simian! My squadron found the Great Fox drifting among the asteroids. We were ordered to seize it and bring it in."

Wolf watched the Great Fox floating by outside his cockpit. "Can't let you do that, Simian. I'm ordering you to stand down. I don't care about the Great Fox or its crew, but her captain is mine."

Simian's voice went silent for a few seconds, then came back sounding worried "We've been ordered to bring the ship to the station" he said. "Sargasso is under new management. We're under orders to fire on anyone that gives us trouble. I'm, uh, really sorry sir."

"How amusing!" Panther laughed. "One of the little thugs must have installed himself as their leader in our absence. Should we teach the fools a lesson?"

Leon giggled and Wolf could picture him arming his Wolfen's weaponry. "Can we, Wolf? Please? I never liked these idiot primates anyway."

Wolf sighed and armed his own weapons. "Fine, but don't destroy the Great Fox. Everything else is fair game."

The communications array clicked over to a better channel and the static vanished. A red-faced baboon appeared on the communicator's video screen. "O'Donnell!" he shouted, "This is Maximilian Primus. You and your team aren't welcome here! Turn around and leave, or my men will open fire!"

Panther snarled and sent lasers stabbing into the blackness toward one of the enemy fighters. The pilot's scream was cut short when his cockpit was compromised. "I think not" Wolf said. "I hadn't planned on flight training today, but your precious soldiers should make good targets for us." He fired a nova bomb into a group of three panicked ships and watched as their metal shells melted in the explosion.

"I believe I recognize that baboon!" Leon said as he gunned down an unfortunate fighter. He whooped excitedly as he chased another, blowing off its wings and watching as the pilot made a feeble attempt to bank right and escape.

"We left him in charge in our absence," Panther said. "I suppose it was inevitable that he would start getting ideas. We aren't here very often." He flew by the Great Fox and looped around the bridge before spinning off to chase another fighter. "Krystal is aboard that ship at this very moment. How invigorating!"

Wolf's lasers tore a ship to pieces as it fell in behind Panther. "Keep your mind on the job!" He ordered. "Otherwise you'll end up with a scorched tail."

"Imbeciles!" Primus shouted into the radio, causing a painful squeal of feedback. "There are only three of them! Someone _kill them!_" He continued to sputter as, one by one, his soldiers were killed. Soon there was only a handful left that had been skilled or lucky enough to avoid death. "That's enough!" Primus ordered. "All ships, disengage. Ready the dreadnought!" he yelled something unintelligible as the radio cut out, presumably to a subordinate.

Panther made a noise that was part chuckle and part purr. "A dreadnought?" he asked. "The primates have been busy since we left. How long do we have until it reaches us?"

"Three minutes" Leon said. "That's assuming it travels at maximum speed. Personally I think it will fall apart before it ever gets here; these ruffians aren't known for their technical prowess."

"Scan the Great Fox" Wolf ordered. "Then we can decide if it's worth defending. If McCloud isn't aboard then there isn't much point." He waited while Leon made several passes over the silent ship, then circled around to cover the other side.

The chameleon sent schematics of the ship to Panther and Wolf. "The engines are dead" he said, "And long range communications have been disabled. The doors on the bow hangar are stuck because of mechanical problems. The crew has almost nothing to work with but the short range communications array."

"That explains why the Arwings never launched" Panther said. "Can you tell if anyone-"

"All Star Fox team members are accounted for" Leon said. "One is in the medical bay and is likely injured. It may be the mechanic, which would explain why the ship hasn't been fixed."

"Hey, Leon!" Wolf growled angrily, "Didn't you say we had more time before the dreadnought arrived?"

Panther chuckled and spun his Wolfen away from the Great Fox to watch the incoming ship with an amused look. "You also said something about a lack of technical skill. They've repaired and old Pleiades cruiser."

"Scatter!" Wolf shouted as the cruiser's guns began to glow a hellish red. The team broke away from the Great Fox and shot toward the cruiser as the laser cannons discharged, scoring a deep gash in the side of the larger ship. "Stop those guns!" Wolf ordered. "Panther, go for the ship's bridge; it's exposed on that model. Leon, focus on the fuel lines. I'll take the cannons themselves."

Wolf knew he could depend on Panther and Leon to do their jobs. Teamwork was one aspect of mercenary work that he was not willing to sacrifice. Panther often got distracted by women and loved to flirt. Leon occasionally became obsessed with an assassination target that he took a liking to. Each was allowed to indulge himself on occasion, but on the battlefield unity was absolute.

Leon made a pass at the fuel lines but was beaten back by a wall of enemy fighters. "To be fair" he said as he circled around to try again, "They claimed this was a dreadnought. The imbecile can't even figure out what kind of ship he's flying."

"Fire the gun turrets!" Simian yelled, but the team was moving too fast and too close for the computers to track them. Lasers discharged harmlessly behind him as Wolf opened up on the rotary motors that aimed the main cannons. They gave out and the guns swerved wildly to the left as hydraulics hissed soundlessly into space.

"I grow tired of your constant yelling!" Panther snarled. Wolf saw him dart toward the ship's bridge, then veer off suddenly. At first it appeared as though he had done no damage at all, but seconds later the nova bomb detonated and turned the bridge to molten slag.

Leon scored a crippling blow to the ship's fuel lines. "Form up and evacuate the area" Wolf ordered. "Let the fools cook in their own pot." Leon cackled like a madman and fell in on his right. Panther, after offering a slightly flamboyant salute to the doomed vessel, took his left flank. The ship exploded behind them as they rocketed back toward the Grey Fox. "No survivors" Leon said. "That's what I love about space fights. No one goes home to spread rumors."

"I prefer things to be just the opposite" Panther said. "I would rather my enemies know me. If no one spreads stories, then how could my reputation ever g-_look out!"_ Panther banked left, Leon right, and Wolf tried to climb as fast as he could. No one had seen what alarmed Panther, but the legendary teamwork of Star Wolf was drilled into their subconscious by hours of grueling training and would not be ignored.

Unfortunately it wasn't enough.

* * *

Fox and the rest of his team watched as Star Wolf battled the Sargasso crew. Slippy had run up from the ship's belly to take a look and arrived just as a volley of laser fire gouged deep wounds in the Great Fox. The bridge shook violently and Fox was glad he'd taken the time to secure Krystal. Had she not been strapped to her bed, the impact could have thrown her around the medical bay like a fleshy blue pinball.

Wolf, Leon, and Panther set about destroying the approaching cruiser. The long range communications array was apparently working in some capacity, because the conversations and orders given blared through the ship's speakers with frustrating clarity. The ship could receive messages without trouble but could not transmit.

The cruiser was destroyed with very little difficulty on the part of Wolf's team. Slippy cheered and laughed when it exploded, causing the others to glance at him. "Well come on!" he insisted, "It's a little funny, isn't it? It seems like Star Wolf has come to our rescue more often than anyone else!"

"Are you feeling okay, Slip?" Falco asked. "You sound a little unhinged, buddy."

"Sorry" Slippy sighed. Fox noticed that he had engine grease smeared over parts of his uniform. "I haven't been sleeping much. The engines have been driving me nuts!"

Panther shouted a warning and the crew turned back to the battle. A chunk of the cruiser's fuselage sliced into the g-diffuser assemblage on Wolf's left wing. His angry growl came over the radio as a wash of static and the Wolfen careened out of control toward the closest edge of the asteroid belt.

Wolf stomped on the breaks, causing the minithrusters on the bow of his fighter to ignite. Unfortunately the main thrusters were far more powerful and he only spun in tighter spirals because of it. "I've lost navigation!" he grunted. "Leon, see if you can cut the engines remotely."

Seconds later the fighter went completely dark but for the minithrusters that slowed it to a near stop. "Are you hurt?" Panther asked. "It would be quite embarrassing to survive the fight only to be killed by the debris."

"I'm fine" Wolf rasped. He coughed heavily and spat something. "I took a blow to the jaw, but nothing's broken. Was anyone else hit?"

Panther chuckled as he slowly circled Wolf's fighter. "My rose was seared by laser fire. It will never be the same."

"I hate to be the one asking all the hard questions" Leon said, "But how are we going to get Wolf out of his Wolfen?"

_

* * *

_

The Being watched the battle and simmered in its rage. Star Wolf had not been part of the plan! The Being had been eating away at the crew of the Great Fox for quite a while now, gently pushing them closer to the breaking point. Wolf O'Donnell and his team were fresh and untouched. They would ruin everything!

_The Being forced itself to remain calm. All was not lost, no matter how frustrating the situation might seem. Leon, the assassin, was notoriously psychotic. Panther Caroso might be more of a challenge, but such an egomaniac was bound to have some insecurity that he kept hidden. Given time the Being was sure that it could drive those two over the edge, even with its telepathy drastically reduced. Being sealed in meat had its benefits, but it could be stifling at times._

_That left Wolf O'Donnell. The Being honestly had no idea what to make of him, having only seen him display ruthless behavior and a thirst for combat. Such emotions were not easy to overcome, but perhaps they could be twisted in the right ways and be made useful._

_No longer blind with anger but still quite upset, the Being contented itself with waking Krystal. It made the experience as painful as possible, but after three days of almost no activity her mind was sluggish to respond. The end result was a nightmare involving a lizard man throwing her from a ship._

_The Being honed in on the nightmare. It seemed familiar, like something remembered from a past life. Having been without a name for so long, the Being was hesitant to consider that it might have found one. "Scales", the lizard man was called. It sounded almost right, but off somehow, like a single discordant note in a song that threw off the entire melody._

_Well, there would be time to focus on names later. For now the Being filed it away, neither accepting nor rejecting it. There were more important things to think about._


	5. Chapter 5: The Rescue

_When your only tool is a hammer, all your problems start looking like nails. When you lose your hammer you end up slapping at nails with your bare hand like an idiot. Fox evidently thought "Fly!" when he wanted to get somewhere and just couldn't let that idea go._

_Sorry this one is a little late, but remember that I never promised to update regularly. I'll do my best, but you'll have to be a little patient from time to time. But I'm sure that won't be much of a problem._

_So…I don't have much else to say. This chapter sort of ended before I was ready for it. I was just waltzing through the narrative and, suddenly, I'm at the stopping point and it's done. That might mean that this story is flowing well. Or maybe I just need to pay more attention. Oh, and Romantic Subplot Cliche number 5: The Steadying Hand (there near the end)._

* * *

"This is insane" Falco stated plainly as Fox checked the seals on his enviro-suit. The formfitting material clung where it shouldn't and squealed loudly when he moved. The "plasteel" helmet was scratched and dented, making it hard to see anything that wasn't six inches from his face. Fox reflected that, if the vacuum of space didn't kill him, it would only be because the suit itself had done the job first.

Fox had insisted on making the rescue attempt and doing the dangerous part himself. "Wolf wouldn't do this in our position" Fox said, "But we aren't Wolf. We could always just let him suffocate when he runs out of air. We'd probably hear him calling for help over the radio. Could you live with that?"

Falco groaned and helped secure the helmet. "I guess not, but when he kills you later out of boredom don't say I didn't warn you."

"Noted." Fox made a pathetic attempt to raise his leg to the first rung on the ladder and sighed. "I need help up. The suit isn't flexible enough."

* * *

Wolf sat in his cockpit and watched the indicators on his view screen. The oxygen supply in his Wolfen was meant to last for hours, not days. That was one reason Star Wolf didn't patrol a larger portion of space; they didn't have the cruising ship necessary.

Some activity on the Great Fox caught his attention. The hangar doors were opening, which Leon had told him wasn't possible.

No, Leon had only said that the bow doors were jammed; the aft hangar seemed to be functioning perfectly. When a Landmaster tank drifted out of the bay Wolf burst into nervous laughter. "McCloud, you crazy fool. I wouldn't bother if it was you."

The tank was, obviously, not meant to maneuver in zero gravity. Fox was undoubtedly struggling with the controls as first one thruster, then another fired to set the tank on a gentle spin. Wolf yanked the emergency kit out from underneath his seat and cracked it open. The enviro-suit inside had a full tank of air and was always ready for just such an occasion. This was not the first time Wolf had been pulled from the wreckage of a ship he'd flown.

It was, however, the first time he'd been rescued by a tank in space. The Landmaster inched closer, pushed gently by the thrusters on its underside. Wolf finished sealing off his suit, checked for leaks, and grabbed the bag from behind his seat before pulling the release lever for his cockpit's canopy. The emptiness of space rushed in and his suit's climate controls scrambled to adjust.

The Landmaster was getting closer, approaching with its treads pointed away from him. Wolf climbed out of his Wolfen and clung to a maintenance rung on the side, hoping that the air supply on his suit wasn't going to run out before the tank reached him. He stayed perfectly still for nearly an hour, afraid that the slightest movement would destabilize his craft and he would lose his grip.

"Well you're certainly clever" Wolf admitted to himself. "You're insane for even considering this, but I'm impressed." As the tank drew near he could see Fox waiving at him from the navigator's seat. Wolf had never seen anyone look so smug and so terrified at the same time.

"Telegram for Mr. O'Donnell!" Fox said over the helmet radio. "We cordially invite you to spend the day aboard the Great Fox. Please make full use of our busted engines and useless navigational equipment while relaxing in any of our thirteen depressurized compartments!"

"Just hold that thing still while I climb on" Wolf ordered. "It wouldn't be much of a rescue if you crushed me between a tank and my own ship."

"Got it" Fox said. He waited while Wolf climbed up the tank and wrapped himself around the main gun.

The tank slowly rotated as one thruster fired. "I hope you weren't too attached to that" Fox said apologetically as the Wolfen drifted out into space. "At least you aren't going with it."

"Just don't make any sudden movements" Wolf said. "There aren't many handholds on this thing and you could end up shaking me loose. And one more thing, _please_ don't land on me when we get inside."

"You're so bossy" Fox said. "Sorry, but there isn't much I can do about that last part. Gravity in the hangar tends to come back all at once, so it might be best if you got free before the doors closed. Otherwise the tank might hit you if it tips over backwards."

Wolf clung to the Landmaster as its thrusters flared, pushing it back toward the Great Fox. When they were fifty meters from the hangar the alarms began flashing. "Slippy!" Fox yelled into his radio, "Don't close the hangar bay doors yet! We haven't made it inside!"

Wolf yelped as his radio squealed loudly. The noise was so loud that his ears rang afterward. Suddenly it cut out and Slippy's voice came through. "I can't stop them!" He said franticly. "The software overrides have been disabled!"

Panther's Wolfen shot past in a blur of red. "Then we need a hardware override" he said calmly, and blasted one of the pistons pulling the doors shut. Wolf's suit alarms screamed as the temperature from the explosion washed over them, but the doors had stopped closing.

"Slippy isn't going to be happy about that" Fox sighed, but he sounded grateful. "We're almost there. Get clear the moment we hit the hangar." Seconds later the tank passed into the gravity well generated by the Great Fox and the tank dropped to the deck with enough force to dent the reinforced plating. Wolf felt like he hit nearly as hard.

The airlock hissed open across the hangar. Wolf waited for Fox to make his awkward, stumbling way out of the Landmaster and together they passed into the ship's interior. Falco and Peppy were waiting for them, both armed. "Sorry about this" Fox said apologetically.

Wolf shrugged and offered Falco his wrists, which were then enthusiastically handcuffed. "That's alright. If you know someone wants to kill you, you can't just let them run around unsupervised. Still, you have my word that I'll behave myself while on board." He saw that Falco looked doubtful, but that didn't matter. Fox had refused to let him suffocate to death in his own ship. Turning on him directly afterward would be…impolite.

* * *

When Fox walked into the medical bay Krystal was sitting on the edge of her bed, looking sadly at something in her hands. "Thank God" Fox breathed, "I…uh, _we_ were worried sick. How did you get out of your bed once you were strapped in?"

Krystal timidly showed what she held in her hands; one of the buckles that had secured her to the bed. The metal was bent out of shape. "I panicked" she admitted. "I woke up strapped to a bed in a hospital setting and thought I was having another nightmare."

Fox sat down beside her and examined the buckle. "That's alright" he said, "These things are pretty cheap anyway. I'm sorry no one was here. You must have been pretty frightened to snap one of these." Krystal leaned against him and he nearly dropped the clasp. "You were out for over three days. We've lost control of the ship."

"Someone is trying to take over" Krystal said. "I could feel him when he woke me. He was very interested in my memories of General Scales and I learned about him while he was watching. He's…terrifying. I've never felt so much anger in one person before. He's going to do everything possible to hurt us."

"We've all been under a lot of pressure lately" Fox said thoughtfully. "Maybe this thing, whatever it is, has been trying to manipulate us and we haven't noticed. We wouldn't be able to tell it apart from our own emotions." He thought for a while, then asked "Why would he be interested in Scales?"

Krystal shrugged tiredly. "I don't know. I could sense that he doubted himself somehow, like he had no clear understanding of its own identity."

"A ghost with an identity crisis" Fox sighed. "Wonderful. The Great Fox is crippled, Wolf O'Donnell's team is circling the ship like a pair of sharks, and we have some kind of psychic monster lurking somewhere in the maintenance corridors. I'd say this has been a fairly eventful week."

Krystal shook her head gently. "I don't know if he's in any particular place. He has no body of his own. He's just a presence that we can feel." She paused thoughtfully and said "I'm sorry, but did you say Wolf was on this ship with us?"

"A lot's happened" Fox explained. "We were drifting for days, then the ship passed right by Sargasso Station. Wolf and his team noticed the monkeys trying to take us in, so he fought them off. His ship was damaged and there was no way he was going to fit into a Wolfen with another person, so we decided to lend him a hand." He smiled bashfully. "When I say 'we' I really mean 'I'."

"So you saved Wolf O'Donnell," Krystal began, "Let him inside the ship, and then what? What about the rest of his team?"

"No idea" Fox said. "I was on my way to the bridge to contact them with Wolf's radio when I decided to look in on you. You could come if you like." He looked at her carefully, then amended "Maybe it would be best if you stayed here. You look tired."

Krystal snorted angrily. "I don't think so. I'd rather be there when something _else_ goes horribly wrong." She smiled, which caused Fox to smile as well. "Maybe a telepath would be useful when bargaining with an enemy. I'd hate for you to think that I'm just a helpless woman in need of rescue all the time."

"I've sparred with you, remember? You don't fool me for a moment."

"Oh, that's good." Krystal got shakily to her feet, unsteady after three days without any movement at all. She nearly toppled over but Fox caught her immediately. She smiled prettily and said "So then, what _do _you think of me Mr. McCloud?"

Fox was very conscious of how close they were. He didn't pull her closer, but he didn't move away either. He wondered if she'd done this on purpose and decided both that it was very possible and that he didn't mind at all. "I think…uh, I think we'd better get going" he said. "We wouldn't want Wolf's team to get impatient."

Krystal looked around for a moment and grabbed a notepad from a nearby table. "First" she said, "Do you have a pen?"

* * *

_The Being listened as Fox and Krystal spoke in the medical bay. It still hadn't settled on a name for itself, but there would be time for that later. It was currently becoming interested in the bonds that held the crew of the Great Fox together. They seemed different from and yet similar to those shared by the members of Star Wolf._

_The bond between Fox and Krystal was particularly unique. The Being could tell that they didn't fully understand it themselves. Krystal had found comfort in Fox's presence after she woke. Her nightmares were forgotten when he was nearby. Fox, in turn, radiated feelings of peace and happiness. The Being decided that it would take a closer look at such feelings when time permitted._

_But right now there was a much larger concern to be handled. The toad had grown almost completely immune to manipulation. The Being would have to get rid of him, but carefully. It would need to tread softly now that Krystal was awake and aware of it._

_Star Wolf presented both an opportunity and a danger; an opportunity because they could become useful, but a danger because they could just as easily be a hindrance if it wasn't careful._

_That would not be a problem. The Being had every confidence in its own ability to turn people against each other. In fact, now that it was noticing the bond between Fox and Krystal, it began to get entirely new ideas about how to start doing just that. And, oh, it sounded like so much fun!_


	6. Chapter 6: Old Friends

_I'm not sure how I feel about this one. I sort of like it, but…not as much as the others. Maybe that's because I'm getting bored of doing things slowly. Which is just PERFECT, because the very next chapter starts the attack on the crew and things should escalate as paranoia sets in._

_I was playing _Starfox Assault_ the other day, and I couldn't help but wonder why Slippy is allowed to pilot an Arwing. Isn't he a mechanic? His job is to fix things, not fly around blasting the bad guys. You know who flies the fighter jets on an aircraft carrier? I'm pretty sure the answer isn't "the same people that do maintenance on them". This also makes me wonder who's been fixing the Wolfen for Wolf and his team. Panther is a pilot, Leon is an assassin…and that just leaves Wolf. Does _he_ do it? Do they just pay someone else?_

_Also, don't wonder too much about why Krystal's smile worries Leon. Someone as deranged as Leon is bound to have terrifying inner thoughts that he'd never share with other people. The guy enjoys murder and torture. He's an icky person._

_Panther's rose makes me smile. Mostly that's just because I love Mel Brooks movies. "A wed wose! How womantic!"_

* * *

Wolf had brought a small bag with him onto the Great Fox. The blaster and combat knife within had been immediately confiscated, but the communications equipment was left alone. Now everyone sat impatiently on the bridge as Wolf fiddled with an antenna that he had attached to his cerebral implant and wired to a speaker. There was a hideous scream of feedback that made Wolf snarl in pain, then only static. "Leon!" He called, "Answer me! Where are you?"

After a moment that static died down and Leon's voice answered: "Six hours from suffocation. Panther is no better off. Explain the situation on the ship, if you would."

"Not as bad as it could be" Wolf said with an ironic smile that Krystal found extremely unsettling. "Fox and his crew have been generous enough to take me prisoner instead of letting me drift off into space. In exchange I've promised not to harm any of them if the chance presents itself. Could you or Panther go for help?"

Leon snorted, which came over the radio as a blast of static. "We could make it to Sargasso, but I doubt the reception there would be agreeable. Anywhere else is too far away. I hope you have a better idea than the one that Panther and I came up with, because that one involves taking the Great Fox by force."

Wolf twisted a dial on the radio and turned to Fox. "They have to stop somewhere" he said. "This is the only place within range that isn't filled with gun-toting thugs. I won't ask for your help out of sheer stubbornness, but we could use it."

Fox sighed resignedly. "Fine" he said, "but we're locking them in separate cabins."

"Not a chance" Wolf said. "I hate to sound ungrateful, but I don't trust any of you. Something's very wrong on this ship; I could feel it the moment I passed through the airlock. The Great Fox didn't just fall apart by accident, which means that you may have a traitor among you. Whoever it is could easily kill us once we're locked up."

"I don't believe this guy!" Falco snarled. "Fox pulled your sorry tail out of that Wolfen before you ran out of air or froze to death, and now you have the nerve to order us around?"

Peppy cleared his throat and all of them fell silent. "We all need to calm down" he said. "Wolf and his team are in the same boat as the rest of us. Without the engines we're all sunk. Wolf can ensure that his friends won't cause trouble." Wolf nodded. "We can either let them in and keep an eye on them or let them die. Those are the only options open to us."

"This is nuts!" Falco argued. "We can't trust Wolf _or_ his team, they're criminals!"

"So were you, once" Fox pointed out. He ignored Falco's stricken look. "Peppy's right. Whatever happens, we can trust the Star Wolf team to do what's best for Star Wolf. For the moment that coincides with what's best for us."

He pulled his blaster out of its holster and set it on the arm of his chair as he addressed Wolf. "Your team can stay here for a while, but I want to be perfectly clear about this: you are on _my_ ship. If we find you where you don't belong, we'll shoot you. There won't be a warning."

Wolf smiled pleasantly as though his life hadn't just been threatened. "That sounds fair to me." Then, after fiddling with his antenna, he called Leon again: "We've reached an understanding. Dock the Wolfen and be on your best behavior."

* * *

Panther and Leon boarded the Great Fox via two small shuttle ports on the ship's side and were escorted to the bridge by Fox and Falco. Krystal, Peppy, and Slippy were waiting for them. The entire team was heavily armed, though Slippy looked ridiculous holding a blaster rifle that was nearly too big for him. The members of Star Wolf looked flattered by such precautions.

Krystal didn't like either Panther or Leon, but not for the same reasons. Leon radiated cold, sullen anger constantly and even an accidental brush with his mind made her skin crawl. Panther was not nearly as unpleasant to be around, but he was a merciless flirt. The moment he set eyes on her he bowed deeply and offered her a rose. "Ah, my dear Krystal!" he purred, "I see that your beauty remains as captivating as ever."

Krystal felt the brief surge of anger and jealousy that emanated from Fox. It was flattering, but it might end up distracting him. "We've never been this close to each other" she said, "so I should warn you that I'm a telepath. At this range I can read your mind like a book."

Leon snorted and Panther tucked his rose back into a loop on his flight suit. "I've heard reports of telepathy, but I find it hard to believe" he said with a dashing smile. "We've met on the battlefield several times. You never did anything beyond what a reasonably experienced pilot would be capable of."

Krystal squinted menacingly and, after a moment, said "It doesn't."

"What doesn't?" Panther asked.

"The rose design that you're thinking of. It doesn't make you look handsome, it just looks flamboyantly gay." Wolf howled with laughter as Panther sputtered. Krystal noticed Leon snickering and smiled knowingly at him. The snickering immediately stopped.

"All…all joking aside" Wolf gasped, wiping a tear from his one good eye, "What happened here? The Great Fox is crippled, but there were no signs of attack."

"No signs of attack!" Falco laughed. "What, you mean apart from the craters blasted in the side?" Wolf glared at him, his cybernetic eye glowing an eerie blue. Falco did his best to seem unshaken, but after meeting Wolf's gaze for a very short time he fell silent.

Fox cleared his throat awkwardly. "To be honest, we don't know what's going on any more than you do. Krystal thinks that a malevolent being snuck on board and is trying to manipulate the crew."

"Very mysterious!" Leon sneered. "A dark presence looms over the ship. Whatever will we do?" he eyed Fox with obvious disgust. "You clearly have a traitor among you. Things will be easier if you can accept that."

Krystal knew that the Star Wolf team wouldn't believe her. Falco and Slippy also looked doubtful, which hurt a little more than she would have expected. There was no point in trying to argue because, in the eyes of most of the crew, what she said was completely impossible. Falco, Slippy, and Peppy had not seen the Krazoa spirits with their own eyes or carried them in their own bodies. She and Fox had, and because of that he might be the only one that would believe her.

"Whatever caused this isn't the issue" Slippy argued. "I don't know much about all this psychic stuff, but if I can get the engines fixed it might not make any difference."

"_Can_ you fix them?" Wolf asked. "You've had three days already."

Slippy grimaced, clearly annoyed with himself. "So far I've had trouble judging my progress" he said. "I know I'm getting close. I have to be; another day and I'll have practically rebuilt the entire propulsion system! Still, I can't make any promises. I've been able to fire them a few times, and they might sustain a burst at around three percent power. At that rate it would take about six months to reach the nearest station."

"Not good enough" Peppy sighed. "Whether or not Krystal is right, we wouldn't last six months. We might not even last the next few days. Whoever is causing this, disembodied presence or ordinary traitor, he'll start trying to kill us off. Wolf and his team arriving may have only pushed him into action faster."

"We'll be ready for it" Wolf promised. "Whoever or whatever it is won't stand a chance against seven of us."

"Eight" Fox corrected. "There are eight of us."

Wolf's smile revealed two rows of the sharpest teeth Krystal had ever seen, even counting those in the mouths of dinosaurs. "One of us is a traitor. I'll be honest; Krystal's psychic monster doesn't impress me any more than it does Leon. Still, _someone_ on this ship intends to kill the rest of us. I intend to kill him first."

* * *

_The Being (or Scales, or whoever he was-though he was fairly certain that he was male) listened intently as the crew discussed how to save themselves. Most didn't believe Krystal's story in the slightest. The irony, and the frustration that it caused her, was palpable._

_Each Star Wolf member was given his own cabin and told to stay in the living and social quarters of the ship. Engineering was strictly off limits. The Being found this annoying since Wolf's team would make ideal scapegoats in the future and they couldn't very well be blamed if they were nowhere near accidents when they occurred._

_Slippy returned to the engines directly after the impromptu briefing. The Being seethed with anger and a touch of panic when it realized that he might be only a few hours away from fixing the engines for good. It would have to take the very next opportunity to set its plan in motion._


	7. Chapter 7: Set In Motion

_As it turns out, the name of this story hasn't been spelled right this entire time. I have no idea how I missed that._

_Yay, the mystery begins! Who do you guys think it was? I had originally intended for Leon to be the one to take the first hit, but he's crazy enough that I want him around for a while longer. Hey look, Billy Joel in space! I'm pretty sure that was a comic book or something? It sounds like it. I totally don't cry when I hear that song, by the way. I'm way too manly for that. Honest._

_The part with the song was an experiment. I'm not sure if I like it or not, but it was sort of interesting._

_These will be up as often as I can get them done. Every couple of days there should be a new one, but school comes first. I'll continue to do my best with spelling, grammar, and general narration if you forgive the occasional mistake that I might make. Deal? Deal._

* * *

Peppy hobbled carefully over to the open grate on the floor, a tray of food and some water balanced in his hands. "Slippy!" He called. "Come on out of there and get something to eat. You'll never get anything done if you die of starvation."

Slippy's grease-covered hands appeared at the edges of the grate and he heaved himself out into the open. He was obviously tired and could hardly muster a grateful smile. "You should get some rest" Peppy said. "You're looking even more green than usual."

"Thanks" Slippy mumbled. He shook his head and blinked hard, as though trying to clear his thoughts. "I've been feeling really weird lately. Hey, do you know what a kinetic thermal barrier is?" Peppy shook his head. "It's essentially an energy barrier that keeps the engines from falling apart during operation. At the speeds we travel ordinary reinforcement just isn't enough to deal with the pressure generated. Without it the engines are next to useless, and it's missing. The stupid thing is wider than I am tall and it's just disappeared."

"Do we have a spare?" Peppy asked.

"Sure" Slippy said with a shrug. "I think I could get the engines running again in the next hour or so, but what then? The KTB isn't the only thing that's disappeared. I've lost assembly joints, hydraulic compressors, and even fan blades from the ventilation systems. It all just vanishes." He looked sadly down at the grate and said "Some mechanic I am, huh? I'll probably have it up and running for ten minutes, then something else will go wrong."

Peppy put a hand on his shoulder and, as he'd done for Fox on so many occasions, tried to think of something comforting to say. "You'll get us there eventually" he said. "Heck, Krystal thinks there's some kind of psychic boogeyman hiding down here. For all we know it's been fighting you every step of the way, and you still beat it."

A weak smile turned Slippy's face up at the ends. "That's a funny way to think about it" he said. "Maybe…hey, do you hear that?"

* * *

Fox had to force Krystal to sleep in the medical bay. She insisted that she was fine, but he wanted her under observation for at least another night. She had, after all, been in a coma for three days. Krystal made enough of a fuss that Fox began to think she had other reasons for avoiding sleep than sheer obstinacy. Something had frightened her so badly that she was afraid to let her guard down.

Finally, when he settled into a chair by her bed and promised not to leave until she was asleep, Krystal listened to him. She looked ashamed at causing him trouble, but there was no need for it; Fox had never intended to leave anyway.

He leaned back in his chair and thought about how things were changing between them. It was insane to think about such things now; there were at least three hostile killers on his ship and possibly a traitor among his crew. Although, Fox privately admitted to himself, he was unwilling to consider the second part.

Nevertheless, his feelings for her would have to be straightened out eventually. He was tempted to call it love, but part of him –the wild, untamed chaser of stars and things that probably ought to be left alone-rebelled at the idea.

Frustrating though such contradictions were, Fox could at least content himself with knowing that she felt the same way. He allowed himself a satisfied smile and put his hands behind his head. As Krystal began to drift off, Fox started to hum. He remembered his mother singing when he was little; it had always made him feel safe and calm, and maybe it would help Krystal.

* * *

_Goodnight my angel, time to close your eyes…_

Peppy cocked an ear and suppressed a shiver. He could feel something moving in on him, something unlike anything he'd ever encountered before. He spun around, but the corridor was empty.

…_and save these questions for another day._

"I c-can't breathe!" Slippy gasped. He fell to his knees and began wheezing, tugging at his collar as his eyes grew wide with fear.

_I think I know what you've been asking me._

The presence became stifling. Peppy tried to stumble back toward the bridge, cursing his old joints for slowing him down. There was no way that he could carry Slippy, but he might be able to find help.

_I think you know what I've been trying to say._

* * *

"Fox!" Falco called as he rushed toward the medical bay. Fox jolted awake and, after laying his hand on Krystal's shoulder, moved quickly into the hallway before the yelling woke her. "We have to get down to the maintenance corridors!" Falco said after the door slid shut. "Peppy and Slippy are in trouble!"

They started running without another word. Fox now regretted turning off his communicator. When he reactivated it he heard Peppy's frightened, breathless voice talking as quietly as he could: "-vent's maintenance tunnel! I can't see it, the lights have gone out."

"Should we get Wolf?" Falco asked.

"For all we know it's him that's down there!" Fox said. He thought about his options as they ran; ROB had been inactive for days, Peppy and Slippy were in mortal danger, and Krystal was in no shape to go anywhere. That left him and Falco, possibly against all three members of Star Wolf. The odds could have been better.

It came as something of a surprise, but also as a huge relief, to find the entirety of Star Wolf waiting for them just outside the doorway to the engine room. "What are you doing_?_" Falco shouted, "Something's in there _right now!_"

"Where, exactly?" Wolf asked. "We've never been down here. We'd just end up-"

"Move!" Fox ordered. "Wolf, use your eye and take point. Take the first left and we'll move on from there." Everyone filed in. Wolf and his team were noticeably unarmed except for Leon, who had found a carving knife somewhere. Fox found himself wishing that he hadn't confiscated their weapons, but at the time it had seemed like a good idea.

The radio's static cut through the silence. "Fox, I don't know what's going on" Peppy whispered. "It seems confused, I…I don't think it's noticed me." There was a loud _bang_, and then "Oh. Guess it has, then."

"Peppy!" Fox shouted, but there was no answer. "Faster!" he urged. "We're almost there! Take a right!" The group charged up to an intersection and stopped cold when Slippy flew out to meet them. Something tossed him bodily into the hallway, his stocky form crashing against the bulkhead and crumpling to the ground.

"Check on him!" Fox told Panther, then covered the next hallway with his blaster. After a brief examination Panther declared that Slippy would live, but he needed help immediately. "It's too dark. Does anyone have a light?" Wolf stepped up and there was an audible clicking noise. His eye blazed and lit up the passageway in front of them.

Something, a shadowy figure that vanished too quickly to identified, moved at the end of the corridor. "After it!" Fox yelled. "Panther, stay here with Leon in case it doubles back." He, Falco, and Wolf charged after the dark shape, boots pounding against metal grating as they steadily gained ground.

Maybe it would have been smarter to leave Falco with Slippy, but that would leave Fox without any of his own team to back him up. He would rather have avoided being caught alone with Wolf and Panther, not to mention a backstabber like Leon.

Around the next bend they nearly steamrolled right over Peppy. He was propped up against the bulkhead, face bright red and eyes vacant. "D-Did you see it?" He gasped. "I tried to catch it. God, it moved so fast…I couldn't."

"Which way?" Fox asked. Peppy shakily pointed to his right. "Falco, stay with Peppy. Look after him until help arrives."

Fox and Wolf sprinted back toward Panther and Leon. "Looks like you were right about it doubling back" Wolf said, hardly moved by the exertion at all. Fox, meanwhile, felt like his lungs were on fire.

Krystal sat up in bed and heard her communicator buzzing; she must have forgotten to turn it off before falling asleep. She listened for a moment as Peppy said something about the lights going out. He sounded panicked and his fear obliterated any drowsiness that remained to cloud her judgment. Krystal all but leapt out of her bed and wriggled into her bodysuit as fast as she could. She checked her staff and raced toward the stern of the ship. Just as she reached the engineering hatch Peppy's voice came over the radio again: "I don't know what's happening. It seems confused, I…I don't think it's noticed me."

Krystal realized that she didn't know where Peppy and Slippy were. Her telepathy told her the general direction of the people she was looking for, but that wouldn't be much help while stumbling through dark passageways that were one minotaur short of a labyrinth.

"Don't move!" Fox shouted from behind her, "Get down on your knees!"

Krystal immediately dropped and yelled "Don't shoot, it's me!"

There was a sigh of relief from behind her and a spotlight flared to life. It was Wolf's eye, blinding after total darkness. "Well," Wolf commented, "This is both a relief and a disappointment. Did you see anyone else run by?"

Fox helped Krystal up and gave her a concerned look. "I'm fine" she assured him, "Don't worry about me, we have work to do." Fox went back to scanning the hallway in either direction and Krystal answered Wolf; "No one got by me." she said. "It was too dark to see, but I would have sensed thought patterns from anyone nearby. What's happening down here?"

Wolf grimaced. "What's happening is that someone is playing with us. Slippy and Peppy were attacked, and now whoever or whatever did it has disappeared."

"We're wasting time!" Fox insisted. "Peppy and Slippy are still in trouble. We need to get them to the medical bay, not run around in the dark like we're chasing Scooby-doo. We can lock down this part of the ship and search it _after_ we take care of our own."

"Sounds like a plan" Wolf said calmly. He twisted a knob on his communicator. "Panther, this is Wolf. Take the toad to the medical bay. We'll get Peppy and meet you there."


	8. Chapter 8: A Man of Wealth and Taste

"_Eyeblink" seems like it should be a real word. So I'm making it one, right here and now. Have Oxford call me. Other than that, I think I have this chapter up to code on spelling and grammar and whatnot. But there's always something that escapes my notice, so who knows?_

_At last we have a name and face to attach to this faceless villain! He's like a sickly, emaciated General Scales. Also he has glowing eyes because what boogeyman DOESN'T have those._

_In some of his stories Steven King had a villain named Randall Flag. Is the name "Snag" supposed to be an homage to this character? Well I'd like to say yes, but no. "Snag" is short for "Snaggletooth", which at first I was going to name him due to his awful teeth. Plus Snag has the "s" and "a" sound like "Scales", so he would like that because his old name was close but not _quite_ right. Maybe I put a little too much thought into this._

_Oh, and who on Star Wolf has any medical skill? Once again I had to pick an arbitrary team member and give him some rudimentary knowledge. Star Wolf has no mechanic, no medic, no ship other than a fighter with questionable traveling range, and no hideout other than Sargasso. I'm starting to wonder why these guys gave Fox and co. so much trouble. In the future I think I'll expand on them to flesh out the group._

_For now, though, enjoy monologues from the creepy villain. "Please allow me to introduce myself, I am a man of wealth and taste…"_

* * *

Krystal had expected to be the only one on the Great Fox with any level of medical training, but it turned out that Panther knew a few things as well. In fact, given that she was less experienced than the average hospital janitor, he probably knew more than she did.

Slippy was badly injured. He had at least four broken ribs, a broken leg, a dislocated shoulder and possibly a concussion. This was clearly not some dispassionate attempt at removing an obstacle; someone had taken a very personal disliking to Slippy and had vented their anger violently.

Peppy was in much better condition. He had a few bruises, but the major threat had been overexertion. He had pushed himself hard in trying to chase whatever had attacked Slippy –so hard, in fact, that his heart had been on the verge of giving out. Krystal was impressed by his devotion to his friends, but felt that any other member of Star Fox would probably have done the same.

At the moment one of them was, and she worried about him. It had been hours since anything noteworthy had happened in the medical bay, but Fox was still there. Krystal found him sitting between Peppy and Slippy. He was staring hard at the floor and only noticed her when she sat beside him. "What happened wasn't your fault" she said.

"Maybe not" Fox admitted. "Maybe there was nothing I could do to prevent this. Every time I go through the last few days in my mind I can't see any possible way around what's happened."

"But you're still angry" Krystal said. "Anyone could tell, telepathy or no."

"Well how _should_ I feel?" Fox asked. "In the last few days three members of my team have been attacked. Two are only alive because of luck or the intervention of whatever god watches over plucky space adventurers. There are three dangerous men onboard and I've given _all_ of them permission to carry weapons again. We don't even outnumber them anymore. I'm the captain on this ship; it was _my_ job to make sure that something like this didn't happen!"

Krystal put her arm around him and sighed, wondering how Peppy had dealt with him for so long. Fox had a terrible habit of taking responsibility for things that weren't his fault. "You're being irrational" she said. "There's no point in torturing yourself over something you couldn't have avoided. Please stop, it hurts both of us."

"Really?" Fox asked.

"Of course. All these bad emotions are giving me a headache." Krystal smiled and was relieved when Fox did the same. "Well" she said, "That's more like it. What's the plan, Mr. Captain?"

Peppy coughed weakly and said "It would be a good start to let certain people get some rest." He chuckled when Krystal rushed in with a hug. "Hey, careful with the old man!" he laughed. "I'm fragile enough as it is."

"No kidding" Fox snorted. "What were you thinking, going ahead alone like that? Did Falco give you an ego transplant or something?" He took Peppy's hand with a relieved smile. "I'm glad you're alright. Can you remember what happened?"

Peppy frowned as Krystal released him. "I don't recall much" he said thoughtfully. "I remember the lights going dark. After that I can't really be sure."

"We'll have to figure out who did it another way" Fox sighed. "Hopefully before someone else gets hurt."

* * *

Krystal had trouble sleeping that night. She dreamed that she was on Scales' ship, high above Sauria as wind and rain lashed at her. As he had before, General Scales dragged her to the side of his ship and snarled at her for daring to trouble him.

This time, however, something had changed. Her mental image of Scales had been warped; he was tall, lanky, and had sickly yellow-orange scales. His eyes blazed with a hateful orange light and his smile revealed a mouthful of crooked, decaying teeth.

"At last!" The nightmare Scales laughed, his bony hand encircling her and lifting her up. "How nice to see you again, face to face!" Krystal braced herself for the drop over the railings. She'd had this nightmare before and knew how it went.

"You know, I think I can almost remember this." Scales lifted her high into the air, letting her see how far she would have to fall. "Now I say…." Scales looked confused for a moment, then struggled harder to remember. "N-No one can…no one can defeat…um…."

Against her better judgment Krystal prodded him: "No one can defeat General Scales."

The nightmare roared in frustration and anger. He tossed Krystal across the ship's deck like a ragdoll and bellowed with a voice that sounded far too big for him. "That is _not_ my name!" He howled. "Scales was weak! Scales was nothing!" In an eyeblink he'd closed the distance between them and pinned her to the wall with one emaciated hand. "Scales is _dead!_" He hissed.

Krystal struggled vainly and tried to spit at him. In the pouring rain it probably wouldn't have made much difference anyway.

The nightmare-Scales spoke with a harsh, whispering voice that somehow carried over the wind and lightning. "I'm going to destroy both of you" he said. "But not before making you suffer. You took life from me, and now I'll repay you in kind. Don't bother looking for me, little thing; I'll find you soon. I'm the creeping paranoia that will infect all of you. I'm the disease that will slowly eat away at your mind. I'm just a little snag in your plans that will tip you over the edge and into oblivion."

The nightmare paused thoughtfully. "I think I like that word" it said. "_Snag_. It sounds right, somehow." His breath washed over her like a filthy, toxic mist. "Now wake up, little thing. Wake up and smell the insanity."

* * *

Krystal woke in a state of utter panic. She rolled out of bed, snatched up her staff, and cast about for her assailant. It was a long time before she could accept that she'd only had a nightmare and that she was, in fact, alone.

The intercom system crackled to life with an earsplitting blast of feedback. When it had quieted down a rough voice, rasping like a broken door hinge, spoke to the Great Fox and her crew. "Hello there" it said, "Please allow me to introduce myself. My name was once Scales, and I was a general. Now I'm just a little snag in your carefully laid plans. That's what you can call me: _Snag_."

Krystal hurriedly got dressed and slid her staff into a leg holster specially made for the purpose. She then grabbed her blaster, slung it over her shoulder, and raced into the hallway. She wasn't sure where to go; Snag could be anywhere on the ship. With no better ideas she headed for the bridge. The voice continued as she ran, grating on her nerves and setting her teeth on edge.

"_For a long time I've been paying close attention to all of you. I first studied your language and your technology, and then later your hearts and minds. I'm horribly, horribly disappointed. Is this why you and Krystal killed me, Fox? So that you could go back to sailing around in a metal box and doing nothing remotely interesting? Did I die for _this_?"_

No, Krystal thought as she ran, you died because you were a monster and Fox kills monsters for a living. She skidded around a corner and kept going, hoping to see someone else going in the same direction. She wanted to reach out with her mind and locate her friends, but that would require concentration that she couldn't spare.

" _Andross brushed me aside like I was nothing, and by now you people can hardly even remember my name. Well, maybe you'll remember better after I've done what Andross and the Aparoids failed to do."_

Krystal was getting close, and she sense someone waiting up ahead. She slowed down and peered around the corner…and into the barrel of a blaster rifle. Once he recognized her Falco immediately pointed his gun in a safer direction. "Sorry!" He said quickly, "You just startled me."

"Is he in there?" Krystal asked, indicating the control room. "Did you see him?"

Falco sighed and looked sheepishly at the door. "I can't get it open" he said. "Fox set a security code on the lock and I don't know what it was."

Krystal tried not to be irritated. After all, if no one could get into the control room then no one could get out either. When the door opened she was disappointed to find that, one way or another, someone had managed it.

"_Let's see how long it takes for your team to tear itself apart when one of them is helping to dig your grave."_

"Look!" Falco said, and grabbed something attached to the intercom box. It was a little data recorder. "Well that's a little frustrating, isn't it?" Wolf, Leon, and Panther arrived moments later. "Where's Fox?" Falco asked.

"Checking the doors in the maintenance areas" Wolf said. "What happened? What did you see?"

Falco tossed him the data recorder with a sour expression. "Just that" he said.

Leon snorted angrily "Lot of good it does us; the only person capable of telling us how long ago it was recorded won't be doing much of anything for the foreseeable future." Falco's hands clenched into fists and for a moment he looked ready to waylay Leon with nothing more than the force of his anger.

Then Falco relaxed and brushed past them with a disgusted look. "Tell me if anything turns up" he snapped. "I'll be in the simulator."


	9. Chapter 9: Boomlay Boomlay Boom

_Once again, working on my exposition a bit in this one. Just a bit though; things heat up in the next chapter when someone goes crazy on an epic level. But for now, drunken shenanigans_

_Hang on, did Fox just provide an alibi for every one of his team members? You can almost see him ticking people off on his fingers, then when he gets to the end…oops, we proved everyone innocent! Which means we proved no one innocent. Nice job Fox, you succeeded in absolutely nothing. That's what you get for using things like logic and reasoning._

_There's, uh…not much else to say about this chapter I guess. I know what you're thinking, and no, they aren't singing _Diamond Eyes_. They're chanting _The Congo_. I thought it was suitably intimidating for someone like Wolf to enjoy._

_One last thing: "homeworld" is not a word. I made it up, but not just because I felt like it. See, when someone talks about their home country they might call it their "homeland". It wouldn't make much sense to call an entire planet your homeland, since there would be multiple countries involved. Thus, in the world of Star Fox, "homeworld" is the same as "homeland", but refers to a home planet rather than a home country._

* * *

The Great Fox was equipped with an advanced simulator room that perfectly replicated the experience of fighting in an Arwing, minus crashing in a fiery explosion when someone made a mistake. There were a total of eight "pods" –disembodied cockpits that projected the dogfights onto the canopies. Only four had ever been used at once.

Fox walked in to find Falco engaged in a losing battle with a hoard of enemy ships. It was a "losing battle" because, no matter how many were reduced to smoking piles of rubble, the computer would spawn more and more as the fight went on. Falco was doing his utmost to achieve the impossible and beat the system.

"You seem angry" Fox began, casually leaning against Falco's simulator. "Not that I blame you. I don't much like the idea of having a traitor among us either." Falco blasted another ship to pieces and refused to answer. "Peppy's starting to feel a little better" Fox said. "We might search the ship's maintenance areas once he's up to coordinating the groups. The computers on the bridge still work for the most part, so they might be helpful."

"I get it" Falco said. "We'll be moving in a while, but not right now. So until then we just sit and twiddle our thumbs while Wolf and his pals are walking around armed and unguarded."

Fox wished that the sullen reply was a surprise; he'd been thinking much the same thing himself. "I know you don't like having them onboard, but-"

"Of course I don't!" Falco snapped. "Neither do you, neither does Krystal, neither does _anyone!_ But there isn't anything we can do about it and, for a while at least, we're stuck with them. I get it, okay? That doesn't mean I'm happy about it."

After a while he sighed and took his hands off the controls. "Sorry" he said reluctantly. "I'm not…I don't know. I'm just feeling cooped up. I need something I can fight back against, not a faceless monster that could be anyone. Give me a ship to blow up or an enemy pilot to outmaneuver. I'd even take a fistfight."

"Are you feeling alright?" Fox asked.

"I'm fine" Falco said, and went back to his diversion. "I'm miserable and helpless, but otherwise fine. You know how I get."

* * *

Krystal sat perfectly still in the middle of the ship's gym. The sparring ring around her faded away as she reached out with her telepathic gift. She wanted to find Snag and stop him before he could harm anyone else.

But evidently life would not be so easy. After twenty minutes of searching she gave up. There wasn't a single hint of him anywhere; it was as though he didn't exist at all. He was hiding within another mind and using it as camouflage.

Someone entered the gym and Krystal hastily snapped out of her trance. Fox rapped on the doorframe and she waved him in. "Did you want to go a few rounds?" he asked.

"What?" Krystal looked around at the sparring ring and smiled. "Oh, no. It was just quiet in here."

"Well I can leave if-"

"No!" Krystal said, maybe a little too quickly. "I mean, I already looked for this 'Snag' person. He's hiding himself too well." She leaned against one of the pillars supporting the ropes and sighed. "He's remarkably gifted for someone with no formal training. I'm not used to this; telepathy has been my trump card for a long time."

Fox sat down heavily beside her. She almost thought she could hear his robotic knee flexing, but that must have been her imagination. "You'll adapt" he said. "We all will. It's what we do."

"When do we go looking below deck?" Krystal asked.

"Once Peppy can get around better. Maybe tomorrow if he's up to supervising."

Krystal wasn't sure how to say what came next, but she had to manage somehow. "We won't find anything."

Fox chuckled dryly. "Sure we will" he said. "We'll find a lot of empty rooms and equipment that we know nothing about. Still, Leon seems to know thing or two about engines. Someone has to fix up the Wolfen when they get damaged, right? Maybe he'll see something out of place."

"You don't believe that" Krystal argued. "You're just trying to keep everyone busy. You know there's no one down there and we can't fix anything without Slippy."

"He'll come around" Fox insisted. "He has to." Krystal leaned against him and felt him go rigid for a moment. "After that we'll just need to figure out what to do with the three enemy commandos and the monster hiding on the ship and we'll be set."

Krystal smiled. "You have a talent for understatement."

"And you have a talent for stating the obvious." Fox smiled and, hesitantly, draped his arm over her shoulders. "I can't figure out what to do about the traitor. If we really have one, who would it be? Peppy and Slippy were both attacked. I know for a fact that Falco wasn't with them at the time because I ran into him on the way there. That just leaves you, but I was with you in the medical bay. Wolf and his team are the only other people I can think of, but all this started _before_ they got here."

"Maybe it was Peppy" Krystal added. "He went insane, lifted Slippy into the air like he weighed no more than an overstuffed pillow, and threw him down the hallway in a fit of rage."

They both smiled, and Fox added "There's a fun mental image: Peppy hoisting Slippy over his head. It would be like a bowling ball balanced on a Q-tip."

"That's awful!" Krystal giggled. "We shouldn't be…oh, but…." She mimed lifting something heavy and staggering under the weight. They became helpless with laughter, leaning against one another and struggling to breathe.

Finally they stopped, breathing heavily and gasping out a few last giggles. Krystal smiled up at him and he smiled back. She almost wanted to say something, but a strange noise rose up in the background. "Listen" she said, "Do you hear that?"

A loud, rhythmic pounding was echoing through the halls. There were words that went along with it, but they were too distorted by the weird acoustics to be understood. "Yeah, but what is it?" Fox asked. They crept out into the hallway to investigate and, following the noise, came to the mess hall. Wolf and Panther were inside, chanting something they evidently knew by heart.

"Fat black bucks in a wine-barrel room!" Wolf shouted, drumming his fists on the table to emphasize the rhythm. "Barrel-house kings with feet unstable, sagged and reeled and pounded on the table! Hard as they were able, boom boom _boom_!" There was a nearly empty bottle of something on the table between them, and both were starting to slur their speech.

Panther answered Wolf as loudly as he could. "With a silk umbrella and the handle of a broom! Boomlay, boomlay, boomlay _boom!_" Both suddenly froze, realized they were being watched, and sat up a little straighter in their chairs. Panther cleared his throat and smiled at Krystal. "Hello there! Care to join us for a drink?"

"It might be best if everyone got some rest" Fox said. "We've got plans for tomorrow, provided Peppy feels up to it."

Wolf chuckled and leaned back in his chair. "By that you mean we should quit drinking and go away" he said. "That's fine. I wouldn't want two drunken killers running around either."

"I didn't mean-"

"Yes you did" Wolf insisted. He and Panther got to their feet, staggering slightly, and wobbled to the door. Panther gave Krystal a shallow bow as he passed, which she found a little annoying.

"Go on" Wolf told her, "McCloud and I have to talk." She looked questioningly at Fox, but he only shrugged.

"Alright then" Krystal said. "You boys play nice."

* * *

Wolf was not quite sober, but he didn't stagger nearly as much as Panther had. Fox sat across from him at the table and waited for him to sort out what he had to say. "How much do you know about telepathy?" Wolf asked.

"Not much" Fox said. "Most people from Krystal's homeworld had it. Krystal says it's like having a third eye that can see thought patterns. She can't reach out and influence them, and the effect has a limited range. Why do you ask?"

Wolf smiled a cold, predatory smile. "How do you know all that?"

"She told me" Fox said. "Is there a point to all of this?"

Wolf shakily poured himself another drink. He gulped it down, winced, and then cleared his throat. "No point at all" he said, and stifled a yawn. "I think I'll get some rest. We may have an eventful day tomorrow."

* * *

_Snag was worried. He didn't like that particular emotion; he should, by all rights, be free from such things. After all, what could anyone do to him? He had no physical body to harm, no empire to lose, and above all no chance of failure. He was completely certain that he would get what he wanted, given time._

_But Peppy was a problem and Snag was having trouble dealing with him. The old hare had already survived one attempt on his life, indirect though it was. Snag knew that his telepathy, dampened by the body he was hiding in, wouldn't be of any use by now._

_Somehow Peppy was getting wise to Snag's plans. Even now, as he rested in the medical bay, his thoughts were guarded jealously. What was he thinking that was important enough to warrant such paranoia? More importantly, how did he know to guard them at all? He didn't believe Krystal's theories about a psychic monster, did he?_

_Snag almost wished he had a forehead, just so he could slap it. Or course Peppy would believe her now! They had met face to face and the old hare had somehow managed to see right through even the most carefully crafted lies. Snag tried harder to see into his thoughts and, after considerable effort, saw something that worried him even more. He had to get rid of the hare as soon as possible._


	10. Chapter 10: Restlessness

_I know, it took me a while to put this one up. First of all, I've been busy. Final exams are coming up. Also I really had trouble doing this chapter for some reason. I have no idea why it was hard, it just…was._

_I don't actually have any idea if "chicks dig scars". I'd imagine it depends on the individual? Maybe they just like the eye patch because he looks like a pirate?_

_Wow, I wish I had more to say about these. I like doing crazy scenes; they're fun if I can get them right. __Oh, and when someone begs you to lock them up…don't just tell them to take a nap and feel better. Honestly Fox, you should know better than that._

* * *

The next day Fox ran into Wolf in the mess hall. The former was looking for breakfast and the latter was indulging in some hair of the dog. "You're sure that this is a good idea?" Wolf asked as Fox sat down to eat. "It's still pretty dark down there. We could wind up stumbling around and missing something important."

"I never would have expected you to be afraid of the dark" Fox said with a grin.

An iris closed over Wolf's bionic eye and a red laser beam drew a dot on Fox's forehead. "I'm not" Wolf said. "I just don't think that it's a good plan."

"We'll bring plenty of light down there with us" Fox promised. "Besides, Peppy will be coordinating the whole thing. We'll be fine. Krystal says-"

Wolf snorted and waved a clawed hand. "I'm not afraid of ghosts" he said. "You believe whatever you want, but don't let it affect your judgment." He looked thoughtfully at fox for a moment, then leaned in over the table and spoke very quietly; "Remember that someone wants us dead. If Falco or Krystal walked in here _right now_ with a blaster and tried to kill you, could you kill them first?"

It was a terrible thing to think about, but Fox tried anyway. "I don't know" he finally answered.

"I do." Wolf leaned back in his chair again and poured himself a drink. "I know it with absolute certainty. That's what makes us different; you've got too many inhibitions, and they'll end up getting you killed."

"I wouldn't call friendship an inhibition."

Wolf barked a laugh and, for a brief moment, Fox thought he was about to be treated to the sight of someone shooting tequila from his nose. He set down his glass and chuckled. "And I wouldn't call what you've got with Krystal a _friendship_. You've stumbled past friendship when you weren't looking, possibly while wondering where you'd dropped your common sense."

Fox ate quietly, wishing he'd skipped breakfast. It was annoying to know that someone like Wolf could read him just as well as his friends. "Don't get me wrong" Wolf said after a minute, "I don't blame you. If you've got a personal interest in someone, that's your business. Just don't let it interfere with your job. Trust me; that's a recipe for disaster."

"And you'd know" Fox retorted. "I've noticed that there are plenty of women on your team."

With an annoyed glare Wolf tipped his chair back on two legs. "I guess I walked into that one" he said. There was a pause, then "Still, I do well enough. Chicks dig scars."

"Hah!" Fox laughed, "I really doubt…uh, they do?"

"Sure" Wolf said. "At least, I've never had any complaints." He sighed and heaved himself up out of his chair. There were times when Fox was honestly startled by how big Wolf was; he was not freakishly tall, but his shoulders were broad and every ounce of him spoke of a dangerous strength. "Well, we'd better round up the troops. Go get your crew and we'll meet on the bridge."

* * *

Fox sent Krystal to find Peppy and went after Falco himself. He was worried about his friends and needed to know that he could be counted on. Fox had known Falco for a long time, and knew that he had a tendency to get moody and irate when he felt cooped up. Now was one of those times.

Falco was in the simulator room, right where he'd been last night. "Hey there, ace!" Fox said as he walked in. "I should have known I'd find you here. Come on, let's get started."

"Hey" Falco said absently. He seemed a little annoyed at being interrupted. "Sorry, I wasn't paying attention. What did you say?"

"I said we're getting ready to _do_ something!" Fox said. "Come on, get up!" He leaned into Falco's simulator pod and looked at the screen. "Hey, not bad! You beat your old…your…oh my _God._" Falco released the safety inhibitors on his g-diffusers and rolled away from an exploding enemy ship. His finger left a smear of fresh blood on the override button. "How long have you been doing this?"

After restarting his stabilizers, leaving another dab of red in the process, Falco looked up in a daze. "I'm not sure" he said. "What time is it?" He looked over at the clock hanging on the wall and smiled. "Heck, it's only eight."

"It's eight in the morning!" Fox said. "You've been here for nearly a whole day!" He grabbed Falco's hands and jerked them away from the controls. "Stop it! Look at your hands; the traction pads on the joystick have rubbed them raw."

Falco examined his fingers and dully shrugged it away. "It doesn't hurt."

Fox hit the kill switch on the simulator and half-dragged Falco out. "Snap out of it!" He ordered. "There's something wrong with you. You've been finger-painting in blood and you haven't even noticed!"

At last Falco shook himself out of his daze. "I-I have?" He asked, and examined his hands again. They started shaking and he looked over at the bloodied controls in the simulator. He took a step back and looked around, as though expecting someone else to be watching. "I feel weird."

"I don't doubt it" Fox said. "You need a break from all of this. Some sleep wouldn't hurt either."

Falco seized Fox by the collar, heedless of his raw hands. "You have to lock me up!" He hissed, panic putting an unsettling edge on his voice. "Maybe Krystal was right. Maybe this Snag guy is hiding in my head."

"Let's just-"

"_No!_" Falco urged. "I'm a better pilot than you, and you know it. Lately I've been feeling the need to prove that. You have to lock me up before I do something stupid. He's going to use my ego against me, I can feel it!"

"Falco, we can't launch the Arwings anyway." Fox put a hand on his friend's shoulder. "Maybe you just need some rest."

"The Wolfen have similar controls" Falco argued. "I bet I could pilot one of those. There's, uh, four hours of air left in them. That's enough time to do some serious damage to the ship."

Fox had never seen his friend so desperate. Falco had been through more than his share of dangerous situations and had never appeared the least bit shaken. Somehow his confidence had been completely stripped from him in less than a day. "Please, Fox?"

"Alright" Fox sighed. "I'll lock you in your cabin until you feel better. At least try and get some rest while you're in there, okay? You look like you could use it."

"Yeah." Falco smiled tiredly and followed his friend down the hallway. "You're telling me."

The door to Falco's cabin slid open with a low hiss. "In you go" Fox said. "If you need anything, let us know." He put his hand on Falco's shoulder. "Feel better soon, pal. I don't like having you out of commission."

Falco smiled gratefully. "Thanks" he said. "I mean it." Fox pitched backward suddenly as Falco pushed him. His head made contact with the doorframe so hard that he didn't even have time to see stars.

* * *

Leon was feeling sullen. As a result he was having trouble staying green; purple kept creeping in on him when he wasn't paying attention. Wolf had told him to be on the lookout for anything out of place in the engines. The Great Fox was composed almost entirely of antiquated technology and Leon was far from a competent mechanic. Besides, this monster of a ship was an entirely different animal from the Wolfen he was used to. He didn't like it when people misjudged him; he was a killer, not a mechanic.

Falco stumbled around the corner ahead of him. "Leon!" He said happily. There was something very unsettling in his voice. "Hey, where've you been pal? I've been looking all over for you."

"Are you drunk?" Leon asked. "Judging from your staggering, I'd say so."

Falco was getting a little too close for comfort. Leon took a step back to make sure he was still out of striking distance. "What, no sadistic one-liners?" Falco asked. "No maniacal laughter?" He wasn't stopping. Leon was getting tired of backing up, and he'd soon be out of room anyway.

"Falco!" Krystal called. She rounded the corner and frowned. "There you are. Why haven't you been answering your communicator? Where's Fox?" With an irritated sigh Falco took another step forward. Leon backed into the next corridor without meaning to and noticed too late that Falco had positioned himself next to the emergency airlock keypad.

Large ships like the Great Fox could carry much more oxygen than a Wolfen, but the supply was still not infinite. It made sense that, in the event of a catastrophic leak, portions of the ship could be sealed off with an air-tight metal shutter.

Now that potentially life-saving technology would become life-threatening. "Get lost, Krystal!" Falco said. He punched in a short series of numbers and a heavy metal barrier slammed down behind him. "I'm a little busy."

Leon realized that he was now effectively trapped, and Falco wasn't about to let him leave. "As you wish" he said calmly, and lashed out with an open-handed strike. His palm hit Falco's ribs and forced the air from his lungs. "Wolf is going to be very annoyed with me for killing you. You don't stand a chance, bird!"

* * *

Peppy scanned over the papers spread out on his desk. He'd salvaged several ancient texts from Sauria that dealt with the Krazoa spirits. Of course, he had to first translate them into a language that he could understand before they would be of any use. The process was made doubly hard by the multitude of languages and dialects that made up the planet as a whole, and the fact that none of them were written in any conventional pattern. The words often flowed in towards the center of the page in a spiral.

Still, a pattern eventually emerged that he could understand: "_The Krazoa are large, vast beyond imagining. They alter the world as they pass like breath from a carelessly spoken word. The change is small, but it is still felt."_

No, that wasn't the passage he was looking for. Peppy wished he could ask for Krystal's help; her greater understanding of the language might be of some use. He hadn't asked for her help because, as much as the idea sickened him, he couldn't trust her. He couldn't trust anyone.

There it was! Peppy scanned the passage he'd found and, after a while, managed to get something resembling a translation: "_The dead-that-walk-with-living are not to be trusted. They are the spirits of vengeance, of violence. They twist the heart and corrupt the mind._"

Someone knocked on his door and startled him half out of his mind. "Peppy?" Krystal called. "Fox wants to start the search now if you're up to it. How are you feeling?"

"Better!" Peppy called. He shut his books and hid them in the false-bottomed drawer in his desk, wishing he'd never bothered to look. "I'm feeling much better. You go on, I'll be there in a minute."

* * *

Leon knew that he should be more than a match for Falco. He was a trained, lethal killer that could use more than a Wolfen to get the job done. He had studied everything from firearms to poisons; it was an obsession, and one of the few that he could be proud of. All things considered, he was probably more than a match for even Wolf O'Donnell in single combat.

So it was quite a surprise when Falco flexed his shoulder, smiled, and brushed off a bruised rib like it was nothing. "Now we're talking!" He laughed. Leon was so surprised that he only just managed to get out of the way when Falco lunged for him.

For all his disgust at ground combat, Leon would have expected Falco to be clumsier on his own two feet. Instead he could hardly backpedal fast enough. Not that Leon was helpless; far from it, in fact. He landed blow after blow, hammering Falco with enough punishment to stall even the hardiest of opponents. None of it seemed to matter.

Finally there was nowhere left to go. Leon felt his back press against the wall and, more out of instinct than any conscious decision, twisted to the side. Falco's hand slammed into the bulkhead hard enough to shake the entire hallway. Leon clearly heard the bones in his band breaking and thought that, surely, that would be enough to slow him down.

For a moment it looked like he was right. Falco stepped back and regarded his hand with an uncertain eye. Leon thought that maybe, with all the punishment he'd poured on, Falco wouldn't be able to keep going. Several of his ribs were broken, his beak had been cracked, and now one of his hands was useless.

Falco leered at Leon and popped the tendons in his neck. "Clumsy me!" he laughed. His lunge took Leon by surprise, and he threw his entire body into an underhanded punch to the ribs.

Leon had been in many hand-to-hand combat situations and was no stranger to pain, but he'd never been hit like Falco hit him now. His ribs snapped audibly and a strangled gasp was all the sound he could make. He stumbled backward and was lucky enough to avoid Falco's second swing. It was nothing short of a miracle that he stayed on his feet.

"Come on!" Falco shouted. He giggled spastically. "Say something scary!" there was a wild, unrestrained hatred in his eyes that twisted the rest of his face into a frightening caricature of itself. He'd suffered broken ribs, several jabs to the throat, and even a shattered hand without so much as slowing down.

Leon felt fear rising in him, something that hadn't happened in a very long time. He was in so much pain that he could hardly stand to move, let alone fight back. If his luck didn't change soon he would lose, and Falco didn't look like he was feeling merciful.

* * *

"Hurry!" Krystal urged. She was lugging Fox toward the section of the ship that Falco had locked off. His head was spinning and the world sounded like he had socks stuffed in his ears. He saw several hazy shapes and realized that Wolf, Panther, and Peppy had gathered ahead.

As captain, Fox knew the override codes to the ship's emergency systems. Unfortunately his memory was less than stellar at this point. He fumbled with the keypad and began to panic when he realized that he couldn't remember the right code.

"Let me help" Krystal said. She brushed a hand lightly over his head. The touch should have been painful –he probably had a concussion and a large portion of his forehead had been bloodied against the bulkhead- but instead it was comforting. A wave of cool relief swept through him and carried away most of the pain and disorientation.

"Thanks" he said gratefully, and entered the override code. Everyone took a step back, but nothing rushed at them from the other side of the shutter. Instead they saw Leon, sitting cross-legged on the floor with Falco collapsed against the wall.

Wolf and Panther tried to move their teammate, but he hissed angrily when they reached for him. "Not now" he wheezed, breathing as shallowly as possible. "Don't disturb…my calm." His hands clenched, but otherwise he remained perfectly still. "Hurts."


	11. Chapter 11: Toss Away the Key

_Well okay then, that's my first story. I hope everyone liked it! Falco's contained, so the problem should be over with now. Thanks for…hey, where's Leon going? Oh jeez. Guess my work isn't done yet. Now Wolf suspects Krystal? I dunno, Krystal doesn't seem strong enough to throw Slippy down the hallway. Well, then again nobody seems quite THAT strong. Slippy's a little…heavyset._

_Hey, BAM! Adding depth to Panther's character. Does that mean that for a while he killed people to put himself through college? Coolest summer job EVER!_

_Finally there's the matter of the blaster. I've been thinking about this for a while; are they pistols or rifles? In most games they look like pistols, but in _Assault_ the blaster is more of a short carbine. I've come to the conclusion that "blaster" is just a term used to refer to any of those plasma weapons. Thus there can be a blaster rifle, blaster pistol, so on. So, in _Assault_ the player uses a blaster carbine while in, say, Super Smash Brothers, Fox has a blaster pistol._

_Wolf messing with his blaster seems like it would be obvious; he's often played the "I'll do what you do but do it better" game with Fox, so his sidearm shouldn't be any different. Though I question the logic of screwing around with the "flux stabilizer" when doing so can lead to severe consequences such as a malfunctioning weapon…followed by death in a fiery death-ball of superheated plasma. At least it's…uh…a flashy way to go?_

_One last thing: I'm having a little trouble responding to reviews for some reason. I'll try and figure that out, but in the meantime I'll just say thank you very much!_

* * *

"All finished" Fox said. He shut the door to Falco's cabin and locked it. "We've contained him, though I doubt he'd be much of a threat right now anyway."

"You heard what Leon said" Krystal reminded him. "Falco took a beating and completely ignored it. No matter how badly he's injured we can't just let him walk around unsupervised."

"I know." Fox leaned against the door and sighed. "He woke up and saw me as I was leaving. He didn't look crazy to me."

"But-"

Fox held up a hand and she fell silent. "I'm not saying that I don't believe Leon. As ridiculous as this sounds, I know he was telling nothing but the truth. Falco went nuts and tried to kill him. I know it, you know it, and so does everyone else. All I mean is that, for the moment, Falco is lucid. He knows exactly what he did and he's fully capable of regretting it. I know, because I saw the way he looked at me."

Krystal leaned next to him. "It wasn't his fault."

To her surprise Fox smiled at that. "I guess not" he said. "Besides, he'll be alright once we make port. We'll find a way to help him."

"We won't rest until we do" Krystal promised as she took his hand. After a moment she broke into a sudden shiver. "Do you feel that?" She asked. "It just got very cold."

* * *

Peppy wearily pulled off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. He had a terrible headache. It was partly from the awful lighting in his cabin, but mostly because he needed to think in abstract terms to interpret various prophecies and predictions. He didn't like it, but he still wasn't willing to stop. There was something he was missing; he just couldn't figure out what it might be.

The door to his room slid open and Leon's quiet voice filled the room. "Peppy Hare?"

Peppy turned partially around and saw Leon standing in the doorway. He wasn't actually supposed to be up and around yet, but evidently he was sick of the medical bay. Peppy couldn't blame him, having spent more than enough time there himself in the last few days.

After a moment Peppy's eyes were drawn to the blaster in Leon's hand. "So that's it" the old hare said. "Did Wolf order this?"

"No." Leon's thumb pressed a yellow button on the side of his blaster and it began to charge with a low whine. "I've come to kill you for myself. Old soldiers make very satisfying targets."

"I knew your teacher" Peppy said. "Master Torg would be ashamed. He wasn't an advocate of needless death." Leon shrugged, then hissed at the pain it caused. "What a shame" Peppy sighed. "You should have come twenty years ago. We could have made a fight of this."

Leon smiled coldly. "I honestly wish that was the case" he said. "Unfortunately, I am in no condition to fight fair."

Peppy nodded to himself, turned around in his chair, and blasted Leon with the pistol he kept taped to the bottom of his desk. The stun rounds had enough force to knock Leon back into the doorframe, but they didn't drop him right away. Peppy pulled the trigger again and again until, finally, Leon collapsed. "I know" he said, "Neither am I."

Peppy sat back in his chair and took a few deep breaths. If he wasn't careful he'd end up giving himself a heart attack. A weak cough made his eyes snap open. Peppy raised his blaster as Leon pulled the trigger on his own.

* * *

Fox and Krystal heard blaster fire and broke into a run. They found Peppy's cabin as Panther was carrying Leon out. Wolf was inside, inspecting Peppy's injuries. His shoulder was a mass of red and pink, the blaster fire having scorched the flesh almost to the bone.

Krystal let out a quiet gasp when Peppy met her gaze. She looked around to make sure that Wolf and Fox hadn't noticed. "He's losing blood" Fox said. "Wolf, help me carry him to the medical bay!"

"What happened?" Krystal asked as they lifted the old hare and carried him out. Wolf only grunted dismissively, much to her annoyance.

Krystal waited until she was sure they weren't coming back before she started looking through Peppy's desk. He had focused on what was inside so hard that she couldn't help but pick up on it. He wanted her to find something, something very important.

There was a false bottom in one of the drawers that hid a notebook and…something entirely more precious. Krystal delicately lifted the ancient tome out of the drawer and examined it. Why would Peppy keep something this valuable for himself? It belonged in a museum somewhere, not stuffed in an old man's desk.

When she opened the notebook everything started to make much more sense. Krystal hurriedly gathered Peppy's noted and the book, then stashed them in her cabin. She wanted very much to start making her own translation, but she needed to keep up appearances.

For some reason Peppy had been afraid to trust anyone with what he was working on until he'd had no choice. Krystal found that, possibly out of some paranoia of her own, she wanted to keep this to herself just as he had.

* * *

_Snag watched Panther carry Leon to the medical bay and felt satisfaction warm his consciousness. Peppy might survive –he hadn't lost all that much blood- but his studies had been interrupted and that was all that mattered. Snag could feel the presence of the old book in Peppy's desk like a crawling sensation on his metaphorical spine. Whatever secrets it held were dangerous, but at least they had been dealt with._

_Peppy's paranoia had seen to it that no one else knew where the book was hidden. Snag was glad to be rid of the problem, though it was a shame that Leon had been sacrificed in the process. He had shown promise and the spark of insanity within him was fascinating in a wow-this-bug-is-nasty-looking sort of way. Still, he would eventually recover, and maybe then Snag could enlist his help somehow._

_A shiver went through his mind and Snag turned his attention back to Peppy's cabin. What he saw made him sick with anger and frustration. Krystal had found that accursed book and Peppy's notes with it! How had she known? How had the old hare told her without Snag finding out? He hadn't been watching everyone constantly over the last few days –he was just smart, not omnipresent and omniscient- but he was fairly certain that no one had spoken with the hare without him knowing._

_Snag paused as a particularly nasty revelation hit home; he had been thoroughly outsmarted. Peppy had not only made the deductive leap that linked the ship's problems with Sauria, but had also gotten a message to Krystal without alerting Snag to his plan. How had he known to trust her?_

_She would have to go. Snag focused his considerable willpower on scanning the ship for a way to get rid of her that was both efficient and satisfying. There didn't seem to be anything that fit both criteria, so he had to resign himself to sacrificing one for the other._

_Well, maybe not. Maybe he wouldn't have to kill her, only incapacitate her for a while. He hoped that would be the case._

* * *

Fox found Wolf in the mess hall yet again. "Don't you ever do anything but drink?" he asked. Wolf looked wounded and held out his hands to indicate the table in front of him. It was occupied by a glass of orange juice, a side of beef, and a partially assembled blaster pistol.

"So, about today," Wolf began. "Did you see the way Peppy looked at Krystal?"

"I must have missed it" Fox said. "I wasn't thinking about much but getting him patched up. We're lucky that we got to him when we did."

"I understand. You're worried about your team. Any good leader would be." Wolf checked the flux inhibitor on his pistol and made a minor adjustment. Seeing that made Fox wince; a blaster fired a high-intensity plasma bolt that was kept in check by magnets. Tampering with the flux inhibitor was a good way to throw those magnets out of calibration. When that happened there was always a chance that the next round fired would cause a small explosion of plasma hotter than the core of most stars. He really, _really_ hoped that Wolf knew what he was doing. "Still, you have to think about who could have done this."

Fox sat down across the table. "Don't even think about accusing Peppy" he said. "He was obviously just defending himself."

Wolf rammed the slide of his pistol home with a loud _snap_. "I don't think it was Peppy" he said. "I think it was Krystal."

Fox knew that Wolf was gauging his reaction. He tried to sound unshaken when in reality he felt like someone had punched him in the stomach. "Why would you think that?" He asked. "It couldn't have been her. She was with me when the entire thing happened."

"And what was she doing?" Wolf asked.

"Nothing sinister" Fox answered. "I found her meditating in the gym." He thought about that for a minute and realized that Krystal would have been meditating at about the same time that Falco started to go insane. It was an unsettling eye-opener; he didn't actually know what she had been doing before he had distracted her.

"I've studied telepathy for a long time" Wolf said. "Heck, that's why I invited Panther to join Star Wolf; he was all set to become a doctor until they found out he was living on merc money."

"You're joking" Fox said. "You have to be. There's no way you could convince me that Panther Caroso was ever anything but a hopeless womanizer."

Wolf chuckled dryly. "He wasn't then and he isn't now. Panther has always been Panther, but he's more than just an idiot that thinks he's God's gift to women; he's an _educated_ idiot that thinks he's God's gift to women. He mostly studied mental disorders or whatever else they're teaching psychiatrists these days, but he learned about telepathy along the way. Did you know they have a training program to harden a mind against manipulation? Nobody is allowed to care for a psychic patient until they can protect themselves."

"But Krystal can't manipulate people!" Fox argued. "She can listen in on someone's thoughts, but she can't brainwash them into doing what she wants."

"How do you know that?" Wolf asked. "Oh, of course; _she_ told you." He leaned forward over the table and spoke in a fast, quiet voice that Fox found entirely too eager. "In the last twenty years there have been thirty-eight confirmed cases of telepathy on Corneria" he said. "Each and every one of those was accompanied by a terrible personality disorder, usually one that leads to violence. Something about sifting through people's minds makes you lose sight of yourself."

Fox remembered Krystal saying something similar once. "She was trained from birth" he said. "All children on Cerinia were. They learned to control their gifts."

Wolf gave an irritated snort. "You only know what she's told you!" He argued. "She could have said anything and you'd believe her. I suppose you had no reason to doubt her, so it's hard to blame you. I don't even know for certain that she's behind all of this -not yet anyway- but I intend to keep an eye on her. You should too."

"I trust her."

"You trusted Falco" Wolf reminded him. "I trusted Leon. So far you and I are oh for two on judging character. Just be on the lookout for anything suspicious. I don't expect you to lock her up just because I have a gut feeling about her."

"How can you be sure that Leon was being influenced at all?" Fox asked. "He was doped up on painkillers, and he wasn't right in the head to begin with. Maybe with everything that's been going on he just snapped."

Wolf finished assembling his blaster and looked it over with a satisfied smile. "Leon doesn't 'just snap'" he said. "He's a sadistic freak, but he's always followed my orders to the letter. Loyalty is one of the few things I've never compromised on."

"You're just being paranoid."

"And you're being stubborn" Wolf countered. "You haven't had much experience with these situations, have you? Mercenary work isn't always about gunning down the bad guy. Sometimes we don't even know who the bad guy is. Sometimes paranoia is the only weapon we have."


	12. Chapter 12: Dance Like You Mean It

_This one took far too long, but it's not all my fault. For a while I was having trouble submitting documents to this site. So, once I got that settled, no problem. Also it's short. That had nothing to do with why it took so long to put it up; it's just a short chapter. But uh, next one is getting close to done, and I think it'll end up being somewhat long. So that's nice._

_Don't bother trying to translate baccheo nuj xojo. Yes that is the actual language used in _Adventures_, but it doesn't mean "living of death". It means "Killroy was here". Sort of a whimsical thing. Also note that Krystal hasn't resorted to violence outside of the sparring ring until now. Does that mean something? No. Yes. Uh, maybe. Definitely maybe._

* * *

What Krystal found in the ancient tome was far from good news. She had come to the conclusion that Snag was _baccheo nuj xoho_, or "living of death". He was a twisted reflection of his former self that was not truly alive but had not found peace in death. He was a separate thing from the rest of the universe; a being not bound by the laws of the physical world. So far she had yet to find a way to get rid of him.

Krystal found the process of translating unbearably slow and tedious. She could speak the language well enough, but the symbols involved in writing it down were unfamiliar. Worse yet, the book was not written with the words flowing top to bottom or left to right. Text spiraled out from the center, for reasons that she could only guess at.

Krystal heard a knock at her door and shoved her chair away from the desk. She was sick of puzzling through the various legends of Sauria and needed a break. Maybe she would do better after stepping away from the project for a while.

Panther was waiting for her in the hallway. "Oh" she said, trying not to let her disappointment show. She had been hoping hoped that it would be Fox. "Um, hello Panther."

"Hello again" Panther said, and tossed a rose in her direction. Krystal caught it and eyed it dubiously. "I was hoping to find you here".

Krystal sighed and handed the rose back to him. "Please understand, Panther. You're a very…_nice_ person, but this has to stop. I don't feel attracted to you and the constant flirting is not doing you any credit." Panther leaned against the doorframe and crossed his arms over his chest. Krystal wondered if he put effort into striking those poses or if they had just become a habit. "I'm flattered" she said. "Really I am, but please stop. I'm already in love with someone else."

"I'm well aware of that" Panther rumbled. "And your sincerity does you credit. Any man would be lucky to earn your good will." The smile that crossed his face was disturbing and caught her off guard. "But I am afraid that you've misunderstood my intentions. Wolf has decided that you are a problem that must be dealt with. The rose that I offered you when we first met was a gift. This one is only a calling card." He tossed her the rose again and, while she was distracted, hit the emergency lockdown button on the door's keypad.

"What are you doing?" Krystal asked. "Open that door right now!"

Panther reached behind his waist and produced a blaster. "I'm very sorry about this" he said. "It seems a shame to put an end to such beauty." He opened fire before he had even finished speaking. Krystal vaulted over her bed as plasma bolts gouged deep gashes in the walls. She grabbed her staff from its place on her nightstand and activated the defensive shield.

Plasma smashed into the shield and individual rounds shattered into random globules of energy. Panther gaped, dumbstruck, and fired one more time. The gun cycled empty and Krystal dropped her protective barrier.

Considering that he had just observed advanced alien technology for the first time, Panther recovered very quickly. "Very interesting" he said. He dropped the gun and pulled two retractable blades from a hidden shoulder rig. He flicked his wrists and two wickedly serrated short swords sprang out to their full length. "Shall we dance?"

And, much to Krystal's dismay, dance they did. Her staff had a better reach than Panther's swords, but that didn't count for much in the enclosed confines of her room. She constantly had to adjust for something being in her way, be it the bed or a wall.

Panther was a competent fighter with his swords. Krystal came within a hair's breadth of getting her throat cut, then had to reel backwards to keep from being disemboweled. She might be more skilled with her staff than he was with his swords, but circumstances favored him greatly.

Krystal held her own for a while, but the time came when she couldn't keep up with Panther's faster and more maneuverable weaponry. Panther dropped one of his swords and grabbed her staff when she held it out for too long. He then yanked it forward and pulled her off balance. As she stumbled forward she realized that, regardless of how she tried to twist out of the way, Panther was going to stab her. She was going to die and there was nothing she could do about it.

Panther started to push forward with his sword, but at the last moment he faltered. His foot hit the ground at an odd angle and he stumbled, going down on one knee as Krystal tumbled past. She didn't take the time to wonder at her sudden advantage; she struck Panther in the back of the head with a hard kick. He was unconscious before he hit the ground.

Krystal sat on her bed and took a few deep breaths. When she was feeling steadier she opened the door and waited for Fox and Wolf to arrive. They had to have heard the blaster fire, and lockdown alarms would be going off somewhere. Less than a minute later they ran into view, Wolf coming in before Fox as his longer legs quickly ate up the distance. He stopped when he saw Panther on the floor. "What happened?" he demanded.

Krystal balled her hand into a fist and punched him in the nose. "You traitor!" She shouted. "We saved you and you turned on us!" Fox grabbed her and tried to pull her away. She didn't make it easy for him.

* * *

For a while Fox thought that Krystal would never calm down. He made her promise to stay in her quarters, at least until he could figure out what was going on. Once that was settled he went looking for Wolf and found him in the medical bay. He was watching over Panther, who was strapped to the bed with a harness that would hopefully hold up better than the one Krystal had broken through.

Fox sat down across Panther's bed from Wolf. "Tell me what happened" he said. "No lies, no half-truths, no misdirection. Level with me."

Wolf flashed a sardonic smile. "I didn't order her killed, if that's what you mean. Other than that…." He shrugged and toyed with the blaster at his hip. "Don't try to disarm me" he said. "I don't think a blaster will do me any good, but I'd rather keep it all the same."

"Why is that?" Fox asked.

"Because I might be wrong" Wolf said. "I can't be certain, but I think I'm starting to see how things will play out. There are only three of us left. You won't lock her up and obviously locking yourself in a room wouldn't do much good. That just leaves me."

"Well then what _should_ I do?" Fox asked. "Peppy and Krystal have both been attacked by people under your control. Panther even said that he was acting under orders."

Wolf's smile turned much nastier. "And how do you know that?" he asked. "Oh, that's right; because _she_ told you. Isn't it convenient that the security cameras are out? Otherwise we could review footage of what happened in her cabin. Who knows? Maybe she lured Panther there."

"He went there armed" Fox argued. He tried not to think about what Wolf was suggesting, then realized that he was only doing so because of his feelings for Krystal. He wasn't sure what to think about that.

"We're all armed. We've been armed for days and we're going to stay that way. When you're ready to do what you have to, come and find me. I think I'd like to be drunk when it happens. After that I'll just have to play it by ear; I haven't done this sort of thing in a long time."

Fox began to get a funny feeling in the pit of his stomach. He didn't like seeing Wolf this way; it made him nervous. "What sort of thing?" he asked.

Wolf smiled and got up to leave. "It's been a long time since I danced with a telepath. Maybe I still have what it takes. I certainly hope so."


	13. Chapter 13: David and Goliath

_Well, this one is a bit longer. That's nice. I hope the fight scene isn't a letdown; there will be others, I promise. Since everyone is carrying a gun, the fights can't last all that long and still be realistic. Though we're discussing talking animals in space ships fighting a psychic dinosaur ghost, so maybe "realistic" isn't the right word._

_Wolf does bring up a few good points. They ran into Krystal while chasing Snag, and if he's to be believed then telepaths are prone to psychotic disorders. Maybe she's developed a terrifying obsession with Fox. Or maybe Wolf is just blowing smoke so no one suspects him. If so then, wow, that sort of backfired didn't it? Because he was caught trying to strangle Fox's girlfriend. Most guys don't take that sort of thing very well._

_Dang, is it Krystal or Wolf? What do YOU think? I still say it was Slippy. Look at him, lying there in his little "coma". What a faker. It's probably bad that I find that so funny._

* * *

Wolf was drinking again when Fox found him. He looked considerably less cheerful than he had while drinking with Panther. Fox had heard something about watching out for people that drank alone, but couldn't remember what or from whom.

"There you are!" Wolf said when he noticed him. "I was wondering when you'd show up. Here!" He patted the table. "Come on, have a seat." Fox sat down across from him only after making sure that his pistol hadn't been drawn. "Very good" Wolf said, fixing him with a bleary glare. "You can't be too careful around here these days, Mr. Paranoid." He abruptly smiled and poured himself another drink. "That's funny, I think; you being paranoid."

"Leon and Panther both work for you" Fox said. "They've both tried to eliminate members of my team. What else should I think, Wolf? Don't try to tell me that you're just an innocent victim here. We both know better than that."

Wolf poured a shot into another glass and handed it to Fox, who knocked it back and tried not to grimace. "Of course I'm not an innocent victim. That's what makes this so perfect; I'm a big, scary mercenary and she's just a poor little orphan girl. How could it _not_ be me? Never mind that this all started before we arrived."

"Maybe" Fox admitted. "Then again, it's really convenient that we arrived at Sargasso just as you were passing through. It's also funny that none of us were actually attacked before you arrived."

"It doesn't matter what you and I say" Wolf said. "You've made up your mind. I bet she just had to bat those long eyelashes and ask nicely."

"You're paranoid."

"And you're foolish!" Wolf snarled. He downed another drink without blinking. "You've been hypnotized by a pretty face and a skin-tight flight suit. She's removed each of us, one by one while you gawk and make doe-eyes." He thought about that for a moment, then said "I think I've figure out why she left you for last. She likes you, Fox. The rest of us can freeze in the vacuum for all that she cares, but she's become fixated on you."

Fox sighed and tried to think of a way to calm Wolf down before he became violent. He looked like he was already getting close. "You don't even know her" he argued. "You've only ever spoken to her from the cockpit of a Wolfen. She doesn't enjoy hurting people, unlike a few other people I can think of. Why are you so sure of yourself?"

"So glad you asked. Remember when Peppy and Slippy were attacked? We ran off after someone, and Peppy pointed us back toward Panther and Slippy. It was circling around, just like you said." He grinned. "Who did we run into on the way back? She said nothing got by her, and she was right; nothing got by her because she was the one we were chasing."

"She just stumbled into the maintenance corridors. That doesn't mean she was the one we were chasing."

Wolf's claws left deep furrows in the wood of the table. "You. Are. _Blind_." He growled, with a grimace that showed all of his impressively sharp teeth. "You can't see what's right in front of your face, and it may be what kills you in the end. Normally I wouldn't care, but you're taking my team down with you."

He tilted back in his chair and nearly lost his balance, looking profoundly sad. "We're going to die out here in this crippled hunk of garbage that you call a ship. By the time you reach port you might not even remember us." He refilled his glass yet again, making Fox wonder how long he'd been drinking. The bottle was mostly empty. "Maybe if I black out she won't be able to control me. That would be best."

"If I was going to lock you up" Fox said slowly, "I would have taken your blaster."

Wolf's cup paused halfway between the table and his face. "You would have tried" he growled, and finished his drink.

"Right" Fox said. "I would have tried. I'm completely certain that Krystal isn't being controlled- she would know how to fight it off. Of course I also thought that Falco could be trusted. I was wrong then and, no matter how much I hate the idea, I could be wrong now. No matter who I restrain, there's a chance that I could be leaving myself all alone with Snag's puppet. The only option left is to leave both of you free and try to keep an eye on you."

"That sounds…reasonable" Wolf admitted.

"Don't sound so surprised" Fox laughed. "Come on, you need to sober up. I'll help you back to your cabin." Wolf's weight nearly flattened him, but he managed to stay on his feet. Helping Wolf to the door felt like pulling a refrigerator filled with lead across the floor.

When they reached the door Wolf surprised him by grabbing the collar of his shirt and shoving him against the wall. "What are you-"

"I am _trusting_ you!" Wolf snarled. "Remember that. I am trusting you with my life and the lives of my men. If you fail, you won't have to worry about Snag or Krystal or whoever is really responsible for all of this; I'll skin you alive and toss what's left out of an airlock."

Fox swallowed to overcome his dry throat. "Noted."

* * *

Fox woke in a cold sweat, heart beating a tattoo against his ribs. He stumbled into his bathroom and turned on the faucet to splash himself with cold water. He'd had a nightmare, but couldn't remember it. All he remembered was a terrible feeling of helplessness that made his knees weak. He hoped it was just a result of stress and not Snag toying with his mind.

He hated everything about the current situation. Compared to what he was going through now his entire life seemed unbelievably straightforward; fly to the enemy planet, blow up something (or sometimes many somethings) important, and save the day. Now he had no idea what to do, and there was no one that could give him advice. He was alone, and it was a strange and frightening feeling.

Fox got dressed quickly, hardly aware of what he was doing. He would _not_ sit idly by and wait for something bad to happen. He would start by questioning whoever he could. Fortunately, there were two people on the ship that had no reason left to lie to anyone. Unfortunately, those two were Panther and Leon. He wondered if they would mislead him out of shear spite and decided that, since they had both been beaten and embarrassed by members of his crew, it was entirely possible.

* * *

Krystal was surprised to be excited after so many dull hours of study. She may have found a passage that dealt with how to get rid of something like Snag; "_The work of one must be done by the love of two_." If she were of a more romantic (or possibly "sappy" was a better word) mind, she might think that the old tome was referring to her and Fox in some sort of convoluted prophecy. That was, of course, completely ridiculous. The tome wasn't intended to be a prophecy to begin with; it was only a study of the Krazoa spirits.

A noise outside her room distracted her. Krystal slunk to the door and quietly opened it. She saw movement at the end of the hall as someone vanished around a corner. Krystal snatched up her staff and hurried down the hallway. Her translation work could wait; here was a chance to pin down Snag's puppet once and for all.

Krystal followed the mysterious figure to the bridge. She had yet to get a good glimpse of him, but she was almost certain that it was Wolf; Fox would have no reason to sneak around on his own ship. She readied herself for a fight and lunged through the door to find…nothing. The bridge was empty.

There was a red light glowing on one of the consoles. Krystal brought up a command window and began troubleshooting. She realized that someone had tried to lock the ship's computer into an air cycle.

An air cycle was a necessary part of maintenance on any ship. When a large ship like the Great Fox made port it needed to refill its air tanks, but the process wasn't as simple as hooking up a hose and turning on the oxygen. Instead the air from each individual cabin and passageway was sucked out of a vent while fresh air replaced it and filled the reserve tanks. That was all well and good when fresh air was flowing into the ship, but right now it just meant that the air supply was being ejected into space.

Krystal prayed that she wasn't too late. If the tanks had already been emptied then the Great Fox would be left with only what was floating around in the ship at the moment. They would slowly suffocate at the air became more and more poisonous.

All reserve tanks but one had been emptied. Krystal typed in the kill command and shut off the cycling process, breathing a sigh of relief as she did. There was still more than enough air to make port, even if it took weeks or months. Slippy had improved the engines a bit before he was attacked, so it might only take a handful of weeks.

A burly arm wrapped around her neck and yanked her backwards. "Caught you!" Wolf grunted, and muscles like steel cable tightened around her throat. "Let's see if we can remove one of my headaches, shall we?"

Krystal reached for her staff and jabbed one end into Wolf's ribs. He started to laugh but was cut short when the staff extended to its full length, shoving them apart and forcing the air from his lungs. Krystal landed in a crouch and whirled her staff in an arc to keep Wolf from rushing in on her. She needn't have bothered; Wolf's blaster was already out of its holster.

The defensive shield almost went up too late. Wolf spat out a frustrated snarl and holstered his weapon before rushing her. Krystal braced herself against the coming impact and wondered how she could avoid those claws at close range.

The hit that she was expecting never came. Fox smashed into Wolf like a cannonball with an angry shout that made the room vibrate. Wolf, taken by surprise as he was, couldn't keep from being thrown face-first into the bulkhead.

Fox spun Wolf around and landed one punch, then another before Wolf could stop him. They became tangled with one another, each reaching for his blaster while trying to prevent the other from doing the same. Wolf eventually threw Fox over his knee, but Fox caught his shirt and pulled him down as well.

Krystal wished she could help, but if she tried to strike Wolf she might accidentally hit Fox instead. They were moving too fast for her to be sure of herself, so she had to wait and hope an opportunity would present itself.

Wolf struggled to his feet and hauled Fox along with him. He must have decided that a ground fight was not what he wanted. Fox struggled as he was lifted into the air and thrown into the wall in almost exactly the same place Wolf had hit.

Krystal saw Wolf reaching for his blaster and stepped forward to stop him. She caught him off guard and the end of her staff smacked into the back of his head with a muted _whap!_ He stumbled forward, dazed, but caught her staff and wrenched it away from her, swinging it in a broad stroke that ended when it made contact with her temple. The room went fuzzy and she lost all sense of herself for a moment.

Fox backed away and managed to get his blaster out of its holster, but he was knocked off balance when Wolf threw Krystal's staff. It struck Fox hard in the shoulder and threw off his aim. Wolf bore him down and slammed his hand against the deck until the blaster slipped from his grip.

After a brief struggle Wolf reared back and brought his elbow down on Fox's throat. The fight became much more one-sided after that; Wolf hammered Fox with blow after blow while Fox tried to cover up and weather the onslaught.

"Stop it!" Krystal begged. She slouched against the wall, too dizzy and disoriented to stand. "Please, you…you'll kill him." Wolf shot her a glare that could have melted through the ship's armor plating. While he was distracted Fox caught her eye. He was badly beaten, but through the numerous cuts and bruises on his face she could still see him wink.

Wolf turned back to Fox and tried to hit him again, no doubt expecting the beating to continue where it had left off. Fox caught his arm and tugged it tight to his chest. His leg came up out of nowhere, wrapping around Wolf's neck and throwing him hard to the deck. He kept hold of the arm, putting pressure on Wolf's shoulder until it popped audibly out of place.

Wolf howled as Fox rolled away, trying to come to his feet. The pain obviously overwhelmed him and he only made it to his knees before he fell forward, catching himself with his good arm. He looked up at Fox, who had retrieved his blaster, and bared his teeth. "Fool!" He spat through gritted teeth.

Rather than shooting him, Fox clubbed Wolf over the head with his pistol. He waited to make sure the fight was really over, then stumbled over to where Krystal was recovering and sat down with an exhausted sigh. "How bad are you hurt?" he asked. "Because I was just hit by a train, so I've been better."

Krystal sat next to him and shut her eyes. "I'm dizzy" she said. "Other than that, I'm fine. I don't think I have a concussion."

They sat until Krystal felt well enough to stand. She tried to lift Wolf on her own but Fox stopped her. "First, let's fix that arm." He grabbed Wolf's shoulder and, with a hard jerk, popped it back into place. Wolf's entire body tensed but, thankfully, he didn't wake up.

"Why didn't you kill him?" Krystal asked as they lugged Wolf's still form out of the bridge.

"Because he didn't want to kill me" Fox grunted. Wolf was even heavier than he looked. "He could have used his claws, but he didn't. I need to know why."


	14. Chapter 14: With A Big, Broken Grin

_Does this seem rushed? It seems a little rushed to me and I don't like that. I'd say that I was sorry for being so late with this one, but…well, I never really gave anyone a schedule did I? I can't be late if there is no schedule._

_Snag evidently does not like mammals. Does that mean that he doesn't hate Leon and Slippy? Of course not. He hates everyone. He's an equal opportunity hater. Ghost haters gonna hate and whatnot._

_These have been slow because I'm working on other things. One is a novel that I have going, which is exciting to me. I haven't been able to work on either of my books for a while now, but I think I'm working through my writer's block. So uh, yay for fanfiction? It feels a little weird to say that but I guess this story is serving its intended purpose._

_On an unrelated note, my weighted companion cube dice for my car arrived! Guess you could say this…was a triumph. YEEEEEAAAAAAAHH!_

_I think that's the second CSI-type pun I've done thus far. Someone stop me before it's too late._

* * *

Wolf woke with a start and hissed as he tried to move his shoulder. Fox watched as he slowly took stock of the situation and sat up on his cot. "What happened?" he asked. "My memory is a little fuzzy. It's almost as though someone caved my skull in with a pistol."

"I didn't have much choice" Fox said. "You weren't in a reasonable mood."

Wolf stood up and stretched slowly. He was taking inventory of his injuries, seeing how badly he had been hurt. He looked over at Fox and smiled at the thick titanium bars between them. The ship's brig was fairly low-tech, but it would do the job very well. "You aren't taking any chances, are you?"

"Of course I am." Fox smiled, but made certain that he was standing just out of Wolf's reach all the same. "I could have killed you, but I didn't. That's a risk; there's always a chance that you could escape."

"Then why bother?" Wolf asked. He tried to move his injured arm and immediately stopped. "You could have just shot me. No one would blame you."

"I wanted to know why. You could have cut me to pieces. Why didn't you?"

Wolf chuckled as he sat back on the bed. "Good, Fox –very good. Never take anything for granted. Think about what you would do in my situation and you'll figure it out soon enough."

"Your situation?" Fox began. "Fine. We'll start there. I'm trapped on an enemy spacecraft with none of my crew able to back me up. Assuming that I'm not under Snag's control –and that's nothing that any sane person would assume- I've been locked in a room while the only remaining person on board is left alone with Snag's agent. How am I doing so far?"

"Good." Wolf gestured for him to continue.

"Fine. So I'm locked up and helpless in enemy territory. Someone a lot smarter than me is calling the shots. I have to start thinking differently, doing things that he wouldn't expect. I need to play to my strengths or I'll be killed." He thought for a moment and asked "What are your strengths, Wolf? You don't have access to a fighter. Beating me up didn't help either. What does that leave?"

Wolf shrugged with one shoulder. "I suppose I'll do what every force in history has done when outnumbered; I'll have to find something that Snag wants and turn it against him. I'd guess that it would be somewhere in the bowels of this big old ship. We haven't been down there since we arrived, unless you count when Slippy was attacked. What could someone do with plenty of time and access to every piece of mechanical equipment kept in reserve on a space ship?"

"Anything" Fox said thoughtfully. "Someone could do almost anything they wanted if they knew how."

"Now let's think" Wolf said, "Who do we know that has that kind of knowledge? Who would be able to cause trouble right under Slippy's nose and give him the runaround with the engines for days? It certainly couldn't be anyone on my team, or anyone on yours. Not many people are that bright. You'd almost have to be able to read his mind."

* * *

Fox put on foot in front of the other very carefully, slinking through the ship's lower compartments with no more noise than a particularly nervous and shaky shadow. His nerves were on edge and his trigger finger felt twitchy, but so far nothing had jumped out and tried to eat his face.

Wolf's words had stuck with him after they'd spoken. He had to find out what Snag was doing down here, even if what he was doing was an amazing amount of nothing at all. He had to know, and the only way to know was to look for himself.

Fox hadn't told Krystal where he was going. Part of the reason he was looking around was to prove that Wolf was indeed guilty and that Krystal was not under Snag's control. He couldn't prove anything if she was along to steer him away from anything incriminating.

"Incriminating" was an ideal way to describe the pile of machine parts that he found near Bay 3 –a cargo bay that was currently empty. At least, it was supposed to be; the volume of debris around the doors indicated that someone had been very busy lately.

Fox started to type the access code into a keypad set into the wall, but a noise behind him made him pause. The back of his head began to itch, like someone was running their fingers through his hair. He fought off a wave of dizziness and began to panic. Was there a gas leak somewhere? Were the oxygen levels getting dangerously low?

Fox looked back down the corridor and saw Krystal at the other end. "We have to go" he called as he started toward her. "There's something in the air down here!"

"No kidding?" Krystal asked. She began punching numbers into the door's control pad. Before she hit the 'Enter' key, she looked back at Fox and gave him a brief smile. For a moment –and it could have been the tainted air messing with his mind- her teeth looked horribly disfigured. Airtight doors slammed shut and hid her from view.

For a while he was too stunned to be afraid. Wolf had been right all along; Krystal was a traitor.

Something stirred in the mess of mechanical parts behind him. Fox saw that they looked oddly familiar, but he had trouble remembering where he'd seen them. The truth hit like a ton of bricks; they were parts from Aparoids. Some were still alive enough to twitch.

Putting the shock of yet another terrible revelation behind him for the moment, Fox latched on to the first idea that crossed his mind. He began sifting through the mess of disassembled monstrosities, searching for a weapon he'd seen them employ on the battlefield; a repurposed welding torch that could cut through a Landmaster's armor. Maybe he could re-repurpose it for its original function.

Provided that whatever was in the air didn't kill him first.

* * *

Krystal winced as an intense pain stabbed through her mind like a red-hot nail. She groaned and shut her eyes against the blinding lights of the medical bay. When she sat up the handcuffs on her hand tugged at her arm. "What happened?" She asked, looking around for whoever had chained her to the bed. Fox was leaning against a cabinet of medical supplies. Krystal slid back in the bed until she could sit up without the handcuffs pulling on her wrist. "I have the strangest sense of déjà vu" she said, "Almost as though I've woken up tied to this bed before."

"I checked the logs on the ship's computer" Fox said. "The air cycle last night was started with the proper access codes. Nobody had to crack the security systems first. Wolf couldn't have done that."

"What are you saying?" Krystal asked. "It almost sounds like you're accusing _me_ of doing it."

Fox glared with an intensity that she had never seen before. "Stop leading me along" he said. "Wolf isn't in the brig. I didn't release him and he certainly didn't release himself. That just leaves you. Tell me what you've done with him."

"I haven't done anything!" Krystal insisted. She seemed truly alarmed now and was almost shouting. "Fox, we can trust each other! I may not like having him on the ship, but you know I've always followed orders!"

"There are a lot of things that I only know because you've told me" Fox said. "A telepath can't directly harm another person. Isn't that what you said? With their minds linked, any harm done to one is felt by another. Killing someone with your mind would kill you as well. So then, tell me how 'Snag' has been pushing us all closer to insanity for days now."

"Because he's already insane!" Krystal said. "Fox, listen to yourself! Wolf did this, didn't he? He's been trying to turn you against me all along!" Fox stared at the floor and clenched his fists. He was too conflicted to make a decision.

Krystal decided to try a different tactic; otherwise she could remain tied to the bed while Wolf did who knew what. "Have you ever heard of the Tumbleweed?" She asked. "She was a mercenary that went missing five years ago. Most people think that she was killed. She worked with Wolf on several occasions and I think they became…involved."

"What does that have to do with anything?"

Krystal chose her words carefully; Fox was caught between looking out for his crew and not knowing who he could trust. She tried not to be hurt by his suspicion, but it left her feeling strangely hollow. She hoped they would live long enough to reconcile that.

"The Tumbleweed wasn't killed. She was sent to retrieve a telepath that had escaped a mental institution and was put into a psychic coma just like Slippy. She's a vegetable. Don't you understand? Wolf hated me before he even knew me and that hatred is blinding him to the truth. You're letting paranoia get the better of you!"

Fox reached for his blaster and hit the charging button. "Wait!" Krystal shouted, and tried to shield herself with her hands. She knew it was useless; the plasma would sear right through her arms and into the rest of her. Still, it was her natural reaction and she couldn't help it.

The chain holding her to the bed snapped with the force of a gunshot as plasma superheated it in milliseconds. "Get up" Fox ordered as he tossed Krystal her staff. "Just…get up." He nearly lost his balance when Krystal hugged him. "I'm sorry" he whispered, shaking a little. "I need to trust you, but I don't know how-"

"I understand." Krystal kissed him and, for once, he didn't seem nervous around her. "I love you."

Fox sighed heavily, sounding far older than he should have. Krystal knew why; he tended to take responsibility for anything that went wrong, and right now that included absolutely everything that had happened for the last week. "I love you too." Fox chuckled and his hand tightened on her shoulder and hi body became tense. "You trust him too much" he said.

Krystal felt a chill go up her spine. "Who?"

"Fox." Krystal felt inhumanly strong hand lift her up and throw her against the bulkhead. Her shoulder felt like it was moments away from being pulverized by the powerful grip that Fox maintained on it. "You mammals are all the same!" He snarled. "You're blind, all of you! I thought the Aparoids were bad, but at least they had _vision_."

"No!" Krystal wheezed. "No, not him, please-"

"Shut up!" Snag barked. "I'm sick of listening to you –all of you. You've held me up for long enough."

"How?" Krystal asked. Snag spun her around, keeping a firm grip on her shoulder, and gave her a ghastly smile. "How did you do all of this without anyone finding out? Fox was with Falco that first night when you attacked Slippy. He and Wolf-"

"It doesn't matter!" Snag said. "You'll understand soon enough. Right now I have a problem, and you're going to help me with it." Krystal spat at him and bared her teeth with a defiant growl. "No?" Snag asked, grinning with Fox's immaculately white teeth. His true smile, the broken mouth of rust-brown enamel, seemed to be hiding just out of sight. "I thought you'd say that. That's why I'm not giving you a choice."

A hazy orange cloud exploded out from Fox's face. Krystal screamed as it washed over her and forced itself into her eyes, mouth, and nose.


	15. Chapter 15: Lost in Nightmares

_Okay, so there's a chance that I may or may not have sort of forgotten that this was done and not uploaded it. I haven't looked over it as many times as I usually do, but I'm reasonably happy with it so I'll go ahead and put it up instead of waiting yet another day like I usually do._

_For the next chapter I have a part describing how Fox woke up from the coma that Snag puts his victims in. I don't like it. I was never very good at this surreal stuff, like hallucinations and mental battles. Though admittedly the entire point of this story was to challenge myself, so…uh, tally ho!_

_Does anyone else think of Rorschach when Snag is panicking? When the police have him surrounded Rorschach starts going "NO! No no no no!" I do. It's funny how stupid stuff like that pops into my head when it's getting late and I'm really tired. But that happens for everyone I think._

_I…may have just turned Wolf into John McClain. I regret nothing. Oh, and the title to this is a reference that makes no sense at all. "Lost in Nightmares" is Wesker's level 3 hyper combo in Marvel Vs. Capcom 3, if I'm not mistaken. That has no relation to the story at all, no matter how awesome Albert Wesker may be._

* * *

Krystal was lost in a nightmare all over again, but this time she couldn't wake up. Her body moved on its own, a sickening sense of wrongness pervading her mind and forcing her to obey. She wanted to scream, to struggle, to do _anything_, but she couldn't. Her mind remained awake, but she was completely helpless.

She could hear Snag giggling as he skipped her body through the ship's passageways. "This is incredible!" He said excitedly, speaking directly to her mind. "My thoughts aren't dampened by this body at all. It's like being inside a telepathic antenna. I should have taken you first and not bothered with the others."

"First?" Krystal wanted to ask, but could not speak.

Snag heard the question anyway. "Think about it" he said. "I'm not one to gloat, but you and the others were pathetically easy to manipulate. All I had to do was put you in an enclosed space together and watch the fur fly. It was a little like a nature documentary."

Krystal began trying to piece together Snag's actions. Fox couldn't possibly have attacked Slippy, and he had nothing to do with Leon's assassination attempt. In fact, Fox hadn't been in a good position to do _anything_ harmful.

And he hadn't. Snag could move from one host to another, like an infection seeking a new victim. The question was not how one person could have caused so much trouble, but who was responsible for what. "I started with Slippy" Snag said to help her along.

He was clearly enjoying this, feeding his ego by making her feel helpless and overwhelmed. That might mean that said ego was too big for his own good. Krystal made note of that on the off chance that she would live long enough to make use of the information.

Krystal spoke as best she could without using her actual voice. "You couldn't have taken Slippy; someone attacked him."

"I moved from Slippy to Peppy" Snag said. "It was easy enough to waylay Slippy while he was unconscious. It also wasn't hard to lift him, even in such a decrepit old body. You have no idea how strong I can be." She felt him smile, both mentally and by awkwardly twisting her face around. "Peppy's body couldn't take the strain, so I had to move on. Falco was next; they conveniently left him behind for me."

"And after Falco you took Leon," Krystal continued. "Falco tried to lock himself up, and when that didn't work he tried to channel his aggression away from his friends. He didn't realize that being alone with Leon was what you wanted."

"He played right into my hands" Snag laughed. "I possessed Leon and used him to get rid of Peppy. It's really too bad that the old hare survived, but it would have been alright if I'd stopped his research."

Krystal thought back to the book in her room and immediately tried to focus on something else. "Too late!" Snag exclaimed. "I saw that. It wouldn't matter anyway; I felt it the moment you found that troublesome book. I claimed Panther when he carried Leon to the medical bay and tried to get rid of you before you could make any progress."

"But why didn't he kill me?" Krystal asked. They were getting closer to her room, but she might be able to distract Snag until Fox woke up. It was probably a false hope, but it was all she had.

Snag's anger flared with a speed that only true insanity could muster. "Panther fought too hard!" he snarled, so angry that Krystal feared the heat of his emotion would burn her. "Someone must have trained him! He snatched back control at the last second and stumbled. Ah, here we are!"

Snag opened the door to Krystal's cabin –using, to her annoyance, her own personal access code- and strolled into her room with a confidence that grated on her nerves. It was immensely gratifying to see that confidence evaporate in an instant. "Where is it?" Snag demanded, tossing papers off her desk and scanning the room frantically. "Tell me, you pathetic-"

"I don't know" Krystal said truthfully. "I left it right there. There would be no point in trying to hide the truth from you. I can't lie, not when you can read me like a book that _hasn't_ suddenly gone missing for no good reason. Someone must have taken it."

Snag bellowed angrily and flipped the desk over in a fit of rage. Krystal felt the muscles in her arm strain painfully under the desk's weight, but Snag didn't seem to notice. "I'll kill you!" He howled, "_All_ of you! You are nothing, nothing at all!"

The intercom crackled to life, bringing the tirade to an abrupt and anticlimactic end. "Hello there, fellow mercs!" Wolf called pleasantly. "I just thought I'd take this opportunity to announce my…well, we'll call it a return to active duty. I really can't thank you enough for letting me out, Fox. I never would have gotten free on my own."

Wolf's tone became much less pleasant. "And that's a problem. You see, for a long time I was convinced that Krystal was the one causing all this trouble. When you let me out of the brig I assumed that it was because you wanted an ace in the hole that she wouldn't know about. Then I found something in her room that made me think otherwise."

Krystal felt the moment that Snag's anger turned to frustration. "No!" He hissed. "No, no, no! This is all wrong!"

Over the speakers came the sound of something clattering to the ground and Wolf swearing. "My arm still isn't right" he sighed. "I'll have to play this smart. I've decided that I have no idea which of you is to blame for all of this anymore. I suppose I'll have to kill both of you. Right now I'm standing outside Bay 3, but in a few minutes I'll move on. You should probably find me before I break something important down here."

The intercom fizzled and Fox's bleary voice came through. "You're being paranoid. I…I think I know what's really going on. We don't have to do this."

Wolf chuckled dryly. "Haven't I taught you anything?" he asked. "Paranoia is the only weapon I have, Fox, and I intend to use it well. The next time you or Krystal sets foot down here, I'll show you. You're both welcome to come and find me whenever you feel ready."

There was a strange skittering in the background. "Oh, and some of these Aparoid parts are starting to put themselves back together. Someone should probably take care of that." The intercom went silent and Krystal imagined Wolf vanishing into the many dark corridors below the ship's living spaces. The thought was surprisingly comforting; it meant that Snag wasn't in complete control.

"He's going to ruin everything!" Snag growled. Krystal took advantage of his distraction and tried to wrestle control of her body away from him. She partly succeeded and wobbled on her feet before he took over again.

"You'll pay for that later" Snag promised. "Right now I need to find Fox. Be a dear and stay out of the way while I brutally murder him, would you?"


	16. Chapter 16: I'd Like One In White

_Snag talking about getting a new body like someone getting a new car is a little odd. You caught that he was doing that, right? I'm not sure if it's clear enough. Also gender confusion. Oh, and did I get you with the body-swapping thing? Huh? I'm happy with the way it all meshed together! It's like _Invasion of the Body Snatchers_, except it's just one. And the people are fuzzy and adorable._

_That hallucination Fox has? It's a real thing. You can actually start hallucinating with no useful sensory input. It's called the Ganzfeld Effect. Basically, your brain gets bored and makes up stuff all by itself. I have no idea why, you'd think your brain would decide to take a nap instead. Though maybe that would kill you?_

_Hey, did you know that it's really hard to hit something with a firearm if you don't aim? In the movies people just casually toss off a shot like they know exactly where the bullet is going, but it isn't that simple. Seriously, guns are not magical ray beams that hit whatever you want. So I probably shouldn't let characters just sling blaster fire around as they magically hit targets. Especially targets no bigger than the access panel for a door. Speaking of which, it's a good thing this is taking place on a space ship. Otherwise all those random barriers springing up out of nowhere wouldn't make sense._

_The beginning of this is something that I've never liked doing. The surreal, this-is-a-dream-and-stuff-is-metaphorical-type stuff just rubs me the wrong way. But I like things exploding, so I'll take pleasure in the little things. Like supernovas._

* * *

There was a void that filled the world. In fact Fox thought that it probably filled more than just one world, more even than all of space combined. It just went on and on, an endless expanse of nothing. He was numb to all of it, unable to act or even think beyond the simplest of emotions.

Fox missed Krystal. He had no way of knowing how long it had been since he'd last seen her. How long had he spent here, alone in the darkness, with only his dim thoughts for company? He wasn't even sure how he'd gotten here.

Something touched his hand. Fox saw his blaster drifting slowly by and tried to grab it. It was an awkward affair since he wasn't all that certain he even had a body anymore, but he managed.

Now he had a gun, and that was good. Fox still had the nagging feeling that he was missing something, but couldn't put his finger on it. Reaching out for his blaster had proven that he had a body, and he now had a weapon. He wasn't sure what else he should need.

A light kindled in the darkness, so far away and so inconsistent that Fox had no idea what it might be. It couldn't be a star; stars were never seen one at a time. There was no section of space, anywhere in the inhabited portion of the galaxy, that provided a view of one single star with nothing else in sight. There were always stars on the horizon.

As if summoned by his thoughts other stars blinked into existence, slowly at first and then faster until they made an entire panoramic view of the universe. Fox felt his spirit soar as he watched endless glimmering pinpricks of light burning brilliantly, as they had for billions of years. "I wish I could go there," he said, an aching emptiness in his chest. There was so _much_, and he had no way of seeing it from here.

Fox realized what he had been missing: a ship. He wanted the Great Fox back, her gunmetal grey passageways and space-conserving cabins. He wanted the powerful bow cannons and the thrusters that could take her anywhere in the known universe. His ship was his life and his home, and she was missing.

So, he realized, was her crew. The universe spread out before him no longer filled him with wonder; it was a cold, empty place and he hated it. He had no home and the closest thing to a family that he had known in a long time was…what, missing? Dead? He didn't know.

Slowly Fox began to piece together what had happened. This thing before him was an illusion, an image spawned by his mind to distract him from the emptiness of zero sensory input. His ship and his crew were all that he had, all that mattered to him, and they had been stolen. He was angry before he had the presence of mind to wonder if anger was wise in his current state.

"Let me out of here!" Fox snarled. The stars around him began to grow brighter, consuming themselves in a fiery display of wanton destruction. Fox saw none of it. "I said let me _out_ of here! Give me back my ship you pathetic parasite!"

Supernovas exploded and blinded him with a bizarre new kind of darkness. It was the inside of his eyelids. Fox woke sore and angry, gritting his teeth in fury and groping for something that could help him stand.

* * *

Krystal watched as Fox stumbled down the hallway, drunkenly staggering as he fought to remain upright. "Krystal!" He called, reeling for a moment before he could regain his balance. "Krystal, where are you?"

"Right here." Fox didn't even have time to spin around before Krystal's staff brained him. He held out a hand to ward off further blows and managed to avoid the second swing. Snag stood over him, a terrible smile splitting Krystal's face like a ragged wound. "_There_ you are!" He laughed, spinning her staff effortlessly in one hand. "We've been looking everywhere for you!"

"We?" Fox asked. He rolled out of the way as Krystal's staff drew sparks on the floor. The end was sharp enough to pierce a dinosaur's skull and might have run him through had he not dodged in time. Krystal felt an aching hopelessness as her body refused to respond to her will. She was trying so hard, but none of it made a difference.

Snag giggled and put on a pouty face. "Now don't play dumb," he begged, "You know what's really going on. You said so yourself."

"Not…exactly," Fox admitted. "I'm still a little fuzzy on a few things. Maybe you'd care to explain how you hijacked my brain and drove me around like a cheap taxi cab?"

"I'd be delighted!" Snag said. "It wasn't so terribly hard. I was going to let you sweat for a while more, but I ran out of puppets." Snag reached down and hauled Fox to his feet, then tossed him carelessly aside. He hung on with one hand and pinned Fox to the bulkhead. "Wolf wasn't very useful," Snag said. "I just couldn't get my _claws_ into him."

Fox grunted as Krystal's fingernails bit into his shoulder and pierced the skin. Blood stained his shirt and he struggled uselessly. "I jumped to you at the first opportunity. Wolf was getting almost drunk enough to pass out, and I certainly wasn't going to get any work done after _that_."

"But it didn't happen that way!" Fox argued. "Wolf never attacked me!"

"He didn't need to," Snag said. "You remember being shoved against the wall, don't you? I couldn't just let the _real_ memory go floating around in your head, so I fed you some sappy garbage to distract you. You ate it right up. 'Oh Fox, I'm _so_ worried about my team! I'm trusting you, please don't let me down!'"

Snag grimaced as though tasting something bitter. "You're pathetically sentimental. At least Wolf had the good sense to keep his wits about him." Fox gasped as cobalt blue fingernails dug further into his flesh. "After that I tried to set Wolf loose on Krystal, but once again he's proven to be almost impossible to control. It's really frustrating."

Fox fumbled with his blaster, awkward because he was using his left hand. "What are you doing?" Snag asked. "You aren't really going to shoot me, are you? That wouldn't kill me. I'm beyond that sort of thing." Fox aimed his pistol, but not at Krystal. Snag growled as plasma slashed in front of his eyes and blinded him.

Krystal wanted to cry out when white-hot plasma blinded her, but Snag had control of her mouth. She could only wait for the pain to recede as her vision slowly returned. Dark blotches covered most of the world, but they dwindled quickly. She saw Fox aiming his blaster and wondered if he would be able to kill her. She hoped so; anything would be better than this awful helplessness.

"Now we're talking!" Snag laughed. He waltzed her body closer to Fox before making her collapse onto her knees. "Do it!" Snag ordered as he grabbed hold of the pistol. "Shoot me, if you think it will help." Krystal felt the hot barrel press against her forehead, burning a small ring into her fur and skin. She felt the sudden and overwhelming urge to close her eyes.

A look of utter hopeless crossed Fox's face. "Please don't make me do this," he whispered, gun hand shaking so badly that he might have missed anyway. "Please. I'll do anything."

"I would expect nothing less," Snag said. "You people and your attachments; it would be sickening if it weren't so funny."

Fox slowly began backing up. "Don't bother trying to run," Snag said as he forced Krystal's body to its feet. "I can sense your mind, Fox. You'd be surprised what living in a telekinetic does for my abilities. I'm very happy that I took this body for my own instead of killing it." After a moment of consideration Snag added "Though I have to say, I'm not crazy about the color or the gender. Maybe I can find a similar model in male? A clean white coat of fur might be nice too. Maybe I could dye it orange."

"You won't get the chance," Fox said, taking another slow step backward. "You'll never make it off this ship."

Snag's foul smile split her face and made Krystal want to vomit. "You can't stop me. A fight would only hurt out dear Krystal, so you might as well just give in and let me have my fun."

Fox shrugged. "I'll think of something," he said, and blasted a nearby control panel. Airtight metal seals rocketed out of the floor and slammed into the ceiling. Fox vanished behind two feet of titanium alloy.

"Now I'll have to go looking for him," Snag growled. "How very annoying. Oh well, I suppose that there isn't a terribly compelling need to be in a hurry."

* * *

_Krystal withdrew into herself as much as she could. It only helped a little. Her years of training had been trumped by Snag's raw brute force, but she refused to give up just yet. While Snag took a leisurely walk through the Great Fox, looking for Fox or anything else that he might find interesting, Krystal began searching for options._

_There had to be a way out of this. If fighting alongside Fox McCloud had taught her anything it was that no enemy was invincible. There was a weakness in every defense, a vulnerability in every battle plan. There was always something that could be exploited._

_And yet, when she looked at the mind that was now crammed into her body alongside her own, she despaired. Snag was unlike anyone else she'd ever encountered. His thought processes were broken and incomprehensible, yet he could muster a force of will so powerful that it was frightening. Krystal saw that pitting her mind against his would be like an ant facing down a lion. She couldn't face him head on._

_Nor could she afford to take her time and slowly wear away at his defenses; Fox and the rest of her friends needed help soon, before Snag managed to kill someone. He'd already come very close on several occasions. He had to be stopped at all costs._

_There was only one other option that she could see, but she wasn't sure that she was brave enough to consider it. While sharing the same body, she and Snag were linked together. Their minds were connected by a telekinetic bond. That meant that if Snag was hurt, then Krystal would be harmed in equal measure. It also worked in the opposite direction._

_Krystal had always been skilled at meditation. She could slow down her life processes to a crawl and remain motionless for days if she had to; it had kept her alive on Sauria while trapped inside a crystal without food or water. If she concentrated hard enough, could she shut down her body completely? It would kill her and possibly Snag as well._

_She wouldn't play her final card quite yet, assuming that she was brave enough to play it at all. Unless she was certain that there was no other choice, she would have to bide her time. She reminded herself that all was not lost just yet, that Wolf and Fox were still somewhere on the ship and making plans of their own. Such thoughts were hardly any comfort, but she clung to them anyway._

_With nothing else left to her, Krystal settled in to wait for some new development to shift the balance of power in her favor. She hoped that it happened soon, because she wasn't completely certain that Snag wouldn't simply jump to a new host when he sensed what she was doing. She didn't want to die for nothing._

_She would rather not die at all, but beggars couldn't be choosers._


	17. Chapter 17: An Old Enemy

_Remember when I said that I'd turned Wolf in John McClain? I was wrong. It is now Fox. Injured, bloody, and still fighting? Yeah, that's Die Hard material. Double points because he's outmanned and outgunned! It's _Die Hard_ on a space ship! Dibs on that idea._

_Wolf's blaster worries me. Have I mentioned that? I question the wisdom of a firearm that, in essence, could violently explode at any given time because you bump it wrong. I further question the wisdom of taking it apart and messing with the explodey bits. A little extra stopping power isn't worth the possibility of being engulfed in a firestorm of deadly plasma. I am talking to YOU Mr. O'Donnell! You'd think he'd be more careful since he's only got one good eye left._

* * *

After raiding the medical bay Fox McCloud locked the door so that no one would hear him howl. His caution was justified the moment he applied antiseptic to the deep holes in his shoulder. The noise that he made would surely have brought Snag running if he hadn't sealed himself in.

Bandaging himself was awkward with one hand, but was made easier with the wonders of medical technology. An automatic bandage could slowly constrict around an injury until it fit snugly, so Fox only had to hold the cotton patch to his shoulder and wait for it to secure itself to his skin.

For a while he just sat on the floor, leaning back against the counter and waiting for the fistful of painkillers he'd taken to dull the pain. His breathing was a little panicked, but not due to his injury. "Not sure what to do about this," Fox said to no one in particular. "I just…I don't know." When no one answered he sighed heavily. "Oh, of course. I'm alone. I'd forgotten."

At some point he must have fallen asleep, snapping awake with a jolt when he heard someone walking by outside the medical bay. Snag, or possibly even Wolf, was looking for him. Fox scrambled to the other side of the room, flopping down with a pained grimace. He curled up below the observation window and prayed that whoever it was would only look into the bay and not actually come inside.

"Shut up!" Someone barked. "I didn't ask for your opinion!" Fox bit his lip as he noticed the thin trail of blood he'd left on the floor. He waited, praying silently that the footsteps would fade away.

* * *

"I want to find him so that I can kill him," Snag said patiently. Krystal was becoming a terrible nuisance with her constant interruptions; she simply _would not_ stop talking. "And I want to kill him so that you can watch. Any questions?"

"Just one," Krystal said. "If you really wanted to find him so badly, why didn't you check the medical bay? You just looked in through the window and you completely missed him. He was literally three feet away from you."

Krystal's body slowed to a halt. "He was right there?" Snag asked. His anger made Krystal's fists tremble. "I must have missed him because you were distracting me. I think you did that on purpose."

"Of course I did!" Krystal snarled. "You may have me tied up and helpless, but you can't gag me. No matter what you do I'll keep making your life difficult."

He felt her growing nervous as he approached the kitchen. She wasn't actually afraid until he opened a drawer and pulled out a carving knife. "I'd like to keep this body intact," Snag said. "That doesn't mean that I need it to be pretty." He lightly touched the palm of her hand with the tip of the knife. "You are annoying me. If you don't stop, I can hurt you very badly."

Krystal struck suddenly, fighting for control of her arm. All that she managed to do was make the blade wobble a little before Snag stopped her. "That was foolish," he said calmly. Krystal's flesh parted as the blade sunk into the center of her palm. The pain broke her concentration and she lost what little control over herself she had left.

"You're only hurting yourself," Snag said calmly. "I'd rather you leave that to me." He slowly traced a bloody line from the center of her palm to the heel. He felt Krystal squirming as blood trickled down her fingers. He cut a little deeper and watched idly as he neared the wrist. "You should stay out of my way."

"Alright!" she cried. "I'll be quiet!"

"Very good," Snag growled. He put the knife over one of Krystal's graceful fingers. "The next time you give me trouble, I'll take off a finger. I once lost a hand in my previous life, so you can believe me when I say that losing a body part is very painful."

Snag tossed the knife aside and wrapped her –no, _his_- hand in a towel. "There now," he soothed. "That wasn't so bad, was it? You really aren't all that difficult to manage, you know. I think I like it in this body; you're certainly more cooperative than your mechanic ever was."

Krystal slunk back to her mental corner and curled in on herself. "I'll stop you," she whispered, but gently enough that she didn't annoy him. She had obviously been cowed into submission.

"That's fine." Snag examined the red stain spreading across the towel. "You can plot all you like, just do it quietly."

* * *

Fox had waited patiently for the voices to fade away. Krystal sounded so different that he hardly recognized her. When the one-sided conversation passed his hiding place he stumbled out of the medical bay and down the hallway, only a little unstable on his feet. The drugs, both the pills he'd taken and those in the bandage, soothed his physical pain but did nothing for his temper. He was almost too angry to think straight, but not quite angry enough to take on Snag by himself. He needed help.

Now, as he fiddled with the keypad, he wondered how in the world Wolf had gotten through the lockdown without setting of an alarm. Fox was having trouble disabling it even though he had the proper codes. The lockdown was complicated enough that no one, captain or otherwise, could undo it immediately.

Once he had the doors open an alarm sounded. Fox broke into a jog and disappeared into the belly of his ship, wondering if he was going to die down there. The Great Fox, unnaturally quiet now that the engines were running at minimal strength, seemed to close in on him.

Fox spent almost an hour creeping through the maintenance areas. He kept to the abundant shadows and held his pistol at the ready, painfully aware that his right arm was shaky and unreliable. He hoped that he could find Wolf before Snag found either of them.

Eventually Fox became aware that something was following him. He didn't know if it was Wolf or Snag, but either way it was cause for concern. He ducked behind one of the hull reinforcement struts and waited, hardly daring to breathe.

Something large and metallic that shimmered in the dim light scuttled past him. It looked only partially finished, probably because it hadn't found enough parts to fix itself completely. The Aparoid was missing a leg and one of its mandibles, and the protective exoskeleton that usually made them so hard to kill was filled with gaps.

Fox hardly dared to breathe as it skittered closer. He was somewhat hidden, but if the Aparoid saw him then his chances of survival would drop dramatically. He squeezed back against the wall and tried to think invisible thoughts.

In the future, when he looked back on the following moments, Fox would wonder how the Aparoid had been able to sense him. He would consider that it could have sensed his body heat or possibly heard his heartbeat. There was even a chance that it had some of the telepathic abilities of the queen implanted somewhere within what passed for its mind.

None of that mattered right now, of course. Fox rolled under a leg that raked at him with razor-sharp claws, wincing as pressure was put on his injured shoulder. He came up in a crouch and fired, hoping that a lucky shot might get through the partial armor and do some real damage.

His hopes were dashed when the Aparoid did something that he'd never seen before; it bent all of its legs beneath it and leapt at him, halfway crushing him beneath it. He was lucky that it was of a smaller design, not one of the behemoths that went up against a tank on even terms.

As the alien machine tried to reach him with its many legs Fox wondered why in the world it would have done something so foolish; it couldn't reach him, pinned as he was beneath its midsection. The legs simply weren't flexible enough to get at him.

Unfortunately Fox realized that he was probably just as helpless as the Aparoid. He fired through one of the holes in its armor several times, but it didn't seem to notice. There wasn't anything vital within his reach.

With a loud screech of metal against metal one of the Aparoid's legs began to rotate. Metal around the joint warped and flexed, groaning in protest as the leg molded itself into a better position. Fox watched in mute horror as it slowly came closer to him, nearly within grabbing range. The Aparoids had always been incredibly adaptive, and that apparently still held true even without the queen to guide them.

Fox's blaster whined as it ran dry of ammunition. He squeezed the trigger hopelessly, not knowing what else to do.

The sound of an empty battery reminded him of another noise he'd heard; Wolf's blaster letting fly with an abnormally powerful burst of plasma. Fox yanked out one of the release pins for the slide of his pistol as the arm edged closer, claws snapping –for the moment-on thin air.

Fox managed to get his "bad" leg folded against his stomach and, with a strength born of both desperation and advanced robotics, shoved the Aparoid across the floor and freed himself. Before the blasted thing had a chance to right itself he threw the flux inhibitor on the ground as hard as he could. The protective casing cracked and a bluish glow lit the corridor.

Running for all he was worth, Fox shot around a corner as the air began to crackle with energy. He threw himself to the ground and covered his head, praying that he'd gotten far enough away.

The flux inhibitor detonated and turned the hallway behind him into a tiny blue star. The heat chapped his lips and burned his eyes, but thankfully wasn't enough to kill him. When he looked back the Aparoid was gone, vaporized in a field of plasma that was hot enough to melt a perfectly round hole in the hallway where it had been standing. There would certainly be no coming back from _that_.

Fox rolled over on his back and breathed a sigh of relief. He was now unarmed, but that might not make much of a difference in the end. His blaster wouldn't have been terribly useful against Snag anyway; he wanted to avoid hurting Krystal at all costs. For the moment he was alive, and that was something to be thankful for.

Or maybe he wasn't in such a good position after all. Fox heard something moving in the distance, clattering around and making as much noise as possible. Since he was fairly certain that Snag hadn't caught up to him yet, there was only one person that it could be.

Wolf was up ahead, and he was waiting. Fox regretted the loss of his gun much more now than he had a few moments ago.


	18. Chapter 18: The Diamond Dog

_This chapter just doesn't feel right to me, but I felt like putting it up anyway. Yes, that's a David Bowie reference Wolf is making. I guess we know what he was listening to in his cockpit now. Or maybe he was listening to Metallica and he just likes David Bowie too._

_So uh, Fox lets Wolf access the armory. Great idea or worst idea he could possibly have in any situation? You decide! Or let me do it since I'm the author and it's sort of my job to plan these things out._

_Snag seems to be going through some gender issues, which I find hilarious. First he talks about Krystal's body like it's a car he wants to trade in, then he slowly starts acting more effeminate. Irony at its finest._

_On an unrelated note, why are the engines producing enough heat to boil all the water in that area? Aren't they hardly running at all right now? Use your imagination because the best I can come up with is "because they're really big and I said so"._

* * *

Fox walked forward with his hands high in the air. He was glad that he couldn't feel most of the pain in his shoulder, because raising his arm would have hurt. "I'm not armed!" He yelled, scanning the darkness ahead. It was nearly impossible to see where he was going. "We need to talk. Things have changed."

Wolf's arm wrapped around his throat. "Quiet, pup!" He snarled. "I'm tired of your yapping." Fox felt himself being pulled backwards and struggled to break free. Wolf's left shoulder was still injured, but his right arm was as strong as ever and Fox couldn't loosen its grip in time.

Fox saw the floor drop away on either side and had a moment to realize that Wolf had pulled him onto a walkway. Then he was falling, tumbling head over heels as the floor rushed up out of the dark to meet him. He landed hard and the breath was forced out of him as he struggled to remain conscious. There was no time to recover from the fall, so Fox pushed himself into a sitting position and got shakily to his feet. The air around him was filled with churning steam, hot enough that he had trouble breathing.

He had to be in the water treatment room. Fox heard pipes rattling somewhere nearby and the sound of rushing water was everywhere. He decided that Wolf must have rerouted the coolant runoff from the engines to heat the water running through this part of the ship. Why he would have done something like that was a mystery.

Wolf's voice echoed weirdly through the room so that it was impossible to tell where he was. "I knew you'd be coming down here!" He mocked. "You never did like loose ends. Why turn on them, Fox? What did your crew do to make you hate them?"

Fox was quite surprised when a punch came out of the darkness and sent him reeling. Moments later a hard kick took his legs out from under him and he collapsed. "You're disgusting!" Wolf howled. "My rival, a traitor? What a disappointment!"

Fox heard something moving to his right and scrambled out of the way. Wolf's boot missed him by a fraction of an inch. "You've got it wrong!" He called, holding up both hands in a hopeless attempt to protect himself. "I'm not Snag! He's-_urk!_" Wolf planted a kick into his stomach and sent him to the ground again.

"What was that?" Wolf laughed. "I didn't hear you." This time Fox didn't get out of the way in time and Wolf's kick came close to breaking his nose.

Rather than getting up again, Fox tried to lay still. Maybe Wolf would lose track of him in the darkness. "Now you're just being foolish," Wolf chuckled. Fox could hear his footsteps circling the room. "You can't hide from me. Can you see in the dark, Fox? I can." Fox nearly threw up when Wolf stomped on his midsection.

The blue glow of Wolf's cybernetic eye winked on in the gloom. "Come out of the garden Foxy; you'll catch your death in the fog!" Fox stood up again, ignoring the pain that had permeated his entire body. He met Wolf's luminous gaze with the angriest glare he could conjure up.

"You're even more blind than I am!" Fox growled. "I came here unarmed! Maybe that wasn't intentional, but it worked out that way. Right now you're wasting time flogging me while there's a monster running loose on _my_ ship. If we don't stop him then we're both dead, along with everyone we care about and probably plenty of people after he makes port. We need to end this now, before anyone else gets hurt. I can't do that alone."

Wolf stared at him for what felt like an eternity. Finally he reached out slowly, extended a finger, and poked Fox's bloody nose. "Ouch!" Fox yelped, jumping back and bringing his hands to his face. Nothing was damaged (permanently), but it still hurt like the devil.

"That's interesting," Wolf said thoughtfully. "You feel pain. Leon said that Falco didn't feel anything at all."

"Believe me now?" Fox asked. He let out a strangled gasp when he felt Wolf's claws at his neck.

"Maybe," Wolf said. "Look at it this way: if you're lying, I can always just kill you later. Do you have a plan?"

"Not…exactly." Wolf's grip loosened and Fox breathed a sigh of relief. "I was hoping you had some ideas that didn't involve killing us all with your bare hands." He watched Wolf's smile grow into something altogether unpleasant. "That last part about not killing us is really important."

Wolf stepped back into the curtain of steam and vanished. "I've done my homework," he said. "I'll need a sonic emitter from the armory. If all goes well, Snag won't know what hit him."

* * *

It wasn't long before Snag came looking for them. He started near the Bay 3 doors and worked his way deeper into the ship from there. Fox followed out of sight, but Snag could sense his thoughts. Krystal wanted to warn him, to tell him that he shouldn't try to fight Snag on his own, but she was as helpless as ever.

Wolf's voice spoke via the intercom. "How are we feeling tonight?" he asked. "This game of cat and mouse has gotten old, so I brought everyone a special present; it's a cognitive disruption wave. Can anyone tell me what that is?" There was a brief pause as though he actually expected an answer. "No? It works wonders on telepaths. It's a special frequency used to disrupt abnormal brainwaves."

Snag whirled around, eyes wide and panicked. "It's a _what_?"

The air was filled with an ear-splitting screech that set Krystal's teeth on edge and made it almost impossible for her to concentrate on anything but the sickening noise that invaded her mind. Snag howled and staggered against the bulkhead, clawing at Krystal's ears as though he could snatch the sound right out of the air and tosses it away. Fox ran forward and pulled out his radio. "We've got him!" he yelled. "Hurry up and get down here!"

Krystal saw Snag's thoughts and cringed. He'd been shaken by the noise and was off balance, but not actually injured. Before he could stop her she snatched back control of her voice. "He's faking it!" She shouted. "Run!"

Fox spun her around and put her in a choke hold. "Not buying it!" He grunted, as Snag shook off his confusion.

Krystal felt Snag laughing silently as he pretended to struggle. "Don't!" she begged, "Don't hurt him!" Her elbow shot back and struck Fox in the ribs. Thankfully nothing broke but his grip on her neck, but now Snag was free to do whatever he liked.

Fox caught the first punch on his arm and hung on, spinning Krystal in a circle and letting her tumble into the wall. Snag pushed her body to its feet and bared her teeth. "Gonna skin you alive, Foxy!" he laughed. "You won't get away this time!"

The fight that followed wasn't much of a fight at all. Krystal knew that Fox didn't want to hurt her, but his options were limited. He mostly just tried to push Snag away and bide his time until Wolf arrived. He was probably hoping that, with two people working together, Snag wouldn't be able to win out of sheer brute strength.

Krystal's body was moving too quickly for her own comfort. Snag didn't feel the strain on her muscles every time he lashed out or the painful wrenching of her joints when he struck from an odd angle. He was turning her body into a lethal weapon, but it was a painful and destructive experience.

Worse yet, it was damaging her focus. She couldn't sink into her meditation as easily with so much happening, but she resolved to try anyway. There was no other option; Fox and Wolf, two of the deadliest mercenaries in known space, wouldn't be able to stop Snag. They needed her help, and Krystal promised herself that she would give it to them no matter what the cost.

* * *

Fox grunted as one of Snag's punches connected with his injured shoulder. The pain was a distraction, but the real danger was that he had been pushed off balance. His momentary weakness wasn't lost on Snag, who moved in and hammered Fox with blow after blow.

Struggling to breathe, Fox fell against the bulkhead and threw himself to the side to avoid having his ribcage caved in by Krystal's boot. The hallway spun around him and he fell to the floor, wondering how badly he was hurt. He'd been through worse, but his ability to fight back was starting to fall apart.

Krystal's graceful fingers twinned through his hair and yanked him upright. "Let's go find something sharp!" Snag said. "I want to see what you look like on the inside."

For a moment Snag paused and cocked an ear thoughtfully. "Do you hear that?" he asked.

Something crashed to the ground somewhere nearby and the intercom crackled to life. Wolf's gentle laughter filled the hallways. "Warriors, come out and play!" He said in a sing-song voice. "Come on, Snag, don't ignore me. You'll hurt my feelings."

Snag immediately dropped Fox and clapped Krystal's hands excitedly. "Oh, theatrics!" he exclaimed. "I _love_ theatrics!"

Fox chuckled as spitefully as he could. "And here I thought you didn't like being a girl."

For a brief moment Krystal's face was frozen in surprise, but it soon twisted it into an angry mask of pure hatred. Snag kicked Fox hard in the face and left him lying on the ground, bloodied and unconscious but alive. "You just shut up and come with me," he ordered, and hefted Fox over his shoulder. "A human shield might come in handy."

* * *

_Krystal fought the panic that was threatening to overwhelm her. She had been trying to meditate for a while now, but her body wasn't obeying her instructions. Snag had disconnected her from her body completely and there was nothing she could do about it. _

_Fox wasn't moving at all, and for a minute she was afraid that he was dead. Then he stirred against her back as Snag hauled them both along and she felt some small measure of relief. Snag was nearing Bay 3, and she could sense that he was getting excited. That could only mean there was more destruction on the way._

_Krystal wanted to fight back against her captor, but knew that it wouldn't do any good. She couldn't overpower him, couldn't take him down with her, and couldn't even formulate a new plan without him noticing. She was, in every sense of the term, useless._

_Now Snag had Fox slung over her shoulder and was strolling around the Great Fox like he owned the place. It was infuriating enough to keep her focused on the problem at hand, so Krystal held tightly to her anger. It was all that she could do._


	19. Chapter 19: Heavy Metal Nightmare

_Someone in the comments for the last chapter said that Fox couldn't be a human shield because he was not human. I hate that I didn't think of that myself because it's completely true. He isn't a human shield; he's…what do people as a whole call themselves in the Star Fox universe? I mean the society as a whole, not individual species. Are they Cornerians or just…what's animal in Latin? Are they _Homo Animalis_? That also makes me wonder how they differentiate between themselves and ordinary animals. Oh wait, I guess I already know: __**Four legs good, two legs better**__!_

_I've been planning the title for this one for a while now. I'm absurdly excited to use it, mostly because adding the words "heavy metal" onto almost anything makes it that much cooler._

_I've been picturing the "ancient tome" as the Necronomicon in my mind. You know, that book that Ash Williams runs into more often than Batman crashes through skylights? Yeah, I've been imagining Snag as the evil Ash that showed up in Army of Darkness, complete with the funny dance and "Little goody TWOSHOES!" singsong._

_What would you guys imagine Snag as sounding like when not using someone else's voice? I picture him as a creepy "ordinary" guy. You know, in the serial-killer-next-door sort of way. What do you think?_

* * *

Krystal had the opportunity to look around Bay 3 and, having been in the area many times before, could safely say that no one would recognize it now. Junk was piled everywhere, accumulated in the corners and in piles all over the floor like metallic snowdrifts. It looked like a bomb had gone off in a machine shop and scattered the remnants all over the area. A huge pile was cluttering up the other end of the room, garbage piled high enough to touch the ceiling.

Bay 3 was not the ship's largest cargo hold, but it was still big enough that Krystal couldn't see the other side in such poor light. Snag tossed Fox into one of the junk piles and began looking up at the catwalks surrounding the bay. "Oh Mr. Wolf!" he called, "Come out, come out, wherever you are!"

"Right over here!" Wolf laughed. He strolled into view on one of the upper balconies. "I must say, I'm impressed. You almost managed to have me killed without even touching me. That was quite an achievement. Not even Fox could manage that." He glanced over at the unconscious form of Fox McCloud. "I'm sorry old friend, but you're in danger of being replaced."

"Very amusing," Snag called. "Now give me what I came here for." Wolf held up a battered old book with a wolfish ("hah!" Krystal thought dimly) grin. "There it is," Snag breathed. "Now give it to me."

Wolf removed a lighter from his pocket. "I'm afraid there's a problem with that," he said. "You see, I used to think you just wanted to destroy this old thing. Now I've started to think that you want it for yourself. Though, if I'm wrong-"

"No!" Snag thundered, so loud that Krystal wondered how her own voice could sound that way.

"I thought so." Wolf didn't put the lighter away, but he also didn't set fire to the tome. "Now that I have your attention, why not tell me what you were planning?"

Krystal could sense Snag's mind trying franticly to think of something clever to say. "It's about what I became after I died," he finally admitted. "I wanted to know more."

"Exactly!" Wolf exclaimed. "At first you wanted to get rid of the tome before the tome got rid of you, but then you had second thoughts. You started to wonder. You thought that maybe you weren't living up to your full potential, so you decided that maybe you'd rather _read_ this garbage instead of just getting rid of it."

"There would be plenty in it for you!" Snag promised. "You're a mercenary –a business man. I can be one too. Let's negotiate."

Wolf looked slowly at the book in his hands, then back to Snag. "You're asking me to ally myself with the thing that nearly killed me and my team, not to mention almost killing Fox before I got the chance to do it myself."

"Well I'm terribly sorry about –_NO!"_ Snag screamed as Wolf touched the lighter to the book's corner. The dry, dusty paper caught very well and was already a decently-sized fireball by the time Wolf tossed it away. Snag shouted obscenities and charged Wolf, scrambling up a nearby ladder and onto the catwalk.

"Oh, she's angry!" Wolf laughed, stepping quickly back as Snag tried to take his head off with a flying kick. "I'm sensing a mood swing. You're acting more and more like a lady every minute!" Snag howled and raked at him with Krystal's nails, which she noticed with some alarm had become very sharp and deadly. When had _that_ happened?

Snag came at Wolf like an animal, screaming and lashing out in a blind rage. Wolf did his best to stay alive, slowly retreating while mocking his opponent mercilessly. Krystal felt her muscles tiring quickly and, to her surprise, moving slower than they might have.

Her body was reaching its limits. Krystal was in very good shape, but Snag had been putting her through some terrible punishment. The pain of moving –and there was plenty of that- had nothing to do with why her muscles were giving out on her; they were simply reaching the limits of what they could handle. It wouldn't be long before Snag's immunity to pain meant nothing.

Krystal realized that Wolf had been planning for this fight since hearing Leon talk about his fight with Falco. He'd already considered how to beat an enemy that felt no pain and had decided to turn that advantage into a liability. Snag wouldn't realize that he was exhausting Krystal's body until it was too late.

Snag continued to slow down until Wolf decided the time was right. He caught Krystal's arm and pulled her in, then spun her around into a chokehold exactly as Fox had. Snag struck back against his ribs but wasn't strong enough to do any real damage. Wolf bore the punishment with a smile.

That smile ended when Snag braced Krystal's feet against the handrail and heaved, sending both of them tumbling from the catwalk. Krystal landed on top of Wolf and heard something snap beneath her.

Wolf yelped in pain as Snag rolled away and came to his feet. Wolf struggled to rise, breathing in pained gasps as his good eye stared vacantly. His ribs were definitely broken. No matter how she hated him, Krystal's heart broke for him; Wolf was still barring his teeth. "Come on!" he gasped. "Please, while I'm…on…on my feet!"

In a display of fortitude that Krystal found amazing Wolf launched himself forward and tried to kick her in the stomach. Snag danced out of the way, smiling all the while. He waited for Wolf to plant his leg and kicked out his knee with a sickening crack of bone and cartilage. Wolf collapsed with an agonized scream, body convulsing and eyes going wild, before he mercifully lost consciousness.

"So selfish," Snag said calmly. He was forgetting to breathe heavily, causing Krystal to feel lightheaded from lack of air. "He could have at least considered my offer."

Snag turned back to where Fox had been lying and froze. "Not this again! Where did he go this time?"

A fist appeared out of thin air and nearly broke her nose. It was quite startling.

* * *

Fox had drifted in and out of consciousness, his head throbbing so badly that he wished he would pass out and get it over with. He had seen Wolf throw the burning book aside before tricking Snag into exhausting his current body. It had nearly worked too, except that Snag had once again found a way to manipulate the situation to his favor.

The frustration at losing his ship had given way to despair. Fox couldn't even muster the will to stand, let alone fight. His strength seemed to be bleeding out of him, leaving him tired and almost helpless.

Fox wondered what his father would say. He'd settle for a little advice from anyone, really, since he was completely out of ideas. He was badly injured, out of allies, and had no idea how to hurt something like Snag.

But, he realized, he was going to try anyway. The same rage that he had felt at being placed in Snag's telepathic coma came back stronger than ever. Fox felt the old familiar anger rising up in him again and tried to feed the flames, anything to push him to action. He was _not_ some helpless ragdoll to be carted around and dealt with at Snag's leisure. He was a mercenary, a fighter, and when necessary he was a killer.

The idea of climbing out of the trash pile he'd been thrown on was daunting. In fact Fox could hardly imagine moving at all, but he tried anyway. He ignored the screaming of his joints and the ache of his muscles, focusing instead on Krystal. Her body was mostly unchanged, but something about it looked…odd. Her fingernails especially looked different. They were abnormally sharp and dangerous.

Snag kicked Wolf's knee inside out and watched him fall, then smiled at the damage he'd done. Fox held that smile in his mind and used it to spur himself onward. Krystal had been polluted, taken by a monster and turned into one without her consent. That made him angrier than he'd ever been in his entire life.

Fox punched Krystal hard in the nose when Snag wasn't paying attention. He couldn't afford to take it easy on her anymore; he could either hurt her and save her, or let Snag have her and lose her forever.

Snag recovered quickly and sunk into a fighting stance. "You again?" he asked. "Haven't we been through this?" Fox didn't bother to respond, instead kicking Krystal's leg out from under her. Snag rolled backwards before Fox could follow him.

Fox pressed the attack, holding nothing in reserve. He only managed to land two more good punches, neither of which caused Snag the slightest inconvenience. "And we'll keep going through it!" he shouted. "Over and over again until there's nothing left of me, until you break me apart!"

With his trademark grin Snag caught Fox's arm and pulled him forward. "As you wish," he said, and stomped on Fox's knee. He had tried to kick it inside out, just as he had done with Wolf's. Instead the kick bounced off with a muffled _clang_ and Snag stumbled backwards, momentarily off balance. Fox caught him in an instant and spun him around into yet another chokehold.

"Now you're out of luck!" he said, taking an elbow to the ribs without flinching. "No strength in your arms and no long drops to throw me over." He grunted and reined in Krystal's body when Snag struggled harder. "Krystal, if you have any say in this then you should relax. This is for your own good."

Krystal's head craned around at a horrifying angle and Snag's needle-smile made his blood run cold. Fox heard Snag speaking, but not in Krystal's voice. The words slithered into his mind like malignant parasites: "Fool, I never needed her! I don't need anyone!"

A sickly orange glow seeped out of Krystal's eyes, nose, and mouth. She sagged in his arms and sobbed feebly as the glow coalesced into a putrid cloud and floated away. It drifted toward the huge pile of junk at one end of the room and sunk beneath the mess.

Fox let go of Krystal's throat and all but collapsed to the floor. They held each other up, tired and bloodied but relieved beyond measure. "I'm sorry," Krystal whispered. "I tried to stop him."

Fox gently brushed the bandage on her palm. "I noticed," he said with a chuckle. "You're too stubborn for your own good."

Krystal's laugh was almost desperately cheerful. "You should talk. You look like someone dropped a Landmaster on you." She looked over at the pile of mechanical parts. "Where do you think he went?"

As if responding to her words the doors leading to the rest of the ship slammed shut. Bay 3 went into a complete lockdown, meaning that every possible exit was simultaneously sealed. A voice that made Fox want to find a dark hole to hide in filled the room, blaring from the ship's intercom system. "I'm right here," Snag said. "Why would I leave when we were having so much fun?"

The garbage pile shifted, mechanical components clattering down the slope in a small avalanche. "I got tired of living inside ordinary people," Snag continued. Fox thought that he sounded surprisingly…boring. He sounded like someone's financial consultant. "I decided to try something different. While you were panicking and trying to save yourselves, I was tinkering with a little project of my own." Something heaved and tossed metal scraps in all directions. "Well," Snag amended, "Maybe not a _little_ project."

Something resembling an arm shot out of the pile and braced itself against the floor. A hulking body, crudely fashioned to look like some sort of reptile, lurched upright out of the debris surrounding it. "I was hoping to leave one of you alive, but it's probably more fitting that you die together."

Two blindingly bright spotlights flickered to life on the behemoth's "face". Snag glared down at Krystal and Fox from where his robot was sitting, evidently unable to move more than its single arm. "I just wish I'd had time to finish," he complained. "I didn't even get to weaponize it."

"We have to go!" Fox hissed, forcing himself to his feet. He was reaching his limits and couldn't keep going much longer. He began punching commands into the bay door's keypad and growled in frustration when nothing happened.

"A manual override won't work now," Snag said coldly. "You aren't going anywhere. Once I've killed you I'll commandeer one of your friends and send out a distress signal. It might be fun to let people wonder what happened here. Maybe the fate of Fox McCloud and his crew will become a famous mystery, like the Bermuda Triangle or Bigfoot. I could pose your bodies afterward if you like. Any preferences?"


	20. Chapter 20: CRY SOME MORE!

_It's really, really hard to make someone like Snag sound enraged without resorting to profanity. I made myself a promise that I wouldn't use bad language when doing this story because, come on, they never did in the games. If they can do it then I should be able to._

_Now we can add Godzilla to the list of things these "Lylatians" shouldn't know about but do anyway. I sort of like the idea of the Godzilla character showing up though. Maybe since he's a reptile he would be some sort of propaganda mascot. "Stop this mad brute!" and whatnot. Wait, the lizards are usually the bad guys, right? I know Andross was a monkey, but wasn't Venom supposed to be a planet of reptiles? Then there's Scales, of course, but one individual might not count. If you want to get technical about it, they're speaking English right now. That means that somehow they've learned an Earth language. Suspension of disbelief is a magical thing!_

_Also, "pancaking" is not a word recognized by Microsoft Word. I seem to recall hearing it used many times in movies and once by Mitch Hedburg. Language is a fluid thing, not an immovable rock!_

_I'm aware that in the games the "Gatling gun" has both words capitalized. That isn't correct for two reasons, first because only the inventor's name should be capitalized and second because…well, because it isn't very much like a Gatling gun is it? It's more of a minigun which I'll grant you is a "Gatling-type" weapon but…you know, never mind. It's been a long day and I'm not thinking about this anymore. Let's just say that it's easy to look cool when you're dishing out some 7.62 mm punishment at thousands of rounds per minute. Hooah!_

_Oh, and happy Independence Day! My cousin nearly lost a finger and my brother almost lit his grandmother on fire. It's been...exactly what I expected. And that's very distressing now that I think about it._

_I think this is the longest chapter yet, even without counting the unfortunate amount of garbage up here in italics._

* * *

Fox shoved Krystal aside as a colossal fist crunched into the deck plating, nearly pancaking them both. He found that he could still run, though his lungs burned and his injuries were rapidly adding up. He intended to distract Snag while Krystal regained her bearings. He scooped something out of a pile as he passed by and tossed it at the iron monstrosity that was now turning to face him. A broken water filter bounced harmlessly against Snag's new body.

"Come and get me!" Fox shouted as he ducked the clawed hand again. The arm was large and strong enough that it probably could have snatched an Arwing out of the air and crushed it like a paper airplane. Fox tried not to think of what he would look like if Snag managed to catch him with it.

The robot was alternating between trying to kill Fox and propping itself up against the side of the storage bay. It was strong and fast, but not particularly coordinated. Fox thanked whatever god was watching out for him that it hadn't been finished.

The memory of the half-reassembled Aparoid came to mind and Fox nearly became fatally distracted. Shag's robot wasn't properly armed and armored! He scrutinized the arm when it reached for him again and tried to pick out some sort of weakness.

Fox spared a glance back at Krystal and saw that she had disappeared. That was good, though not very helpful; it meant that there was one less distraction for him. Of course, since the bay was on lockdown she was still trapped inside with Snag. He could only hope that she was doing something useful or at least finding a good place to hide.

One of Snag's clumsy attempts at catching him came a little too close to succeeding. Fox was tossed into the air when the hand swiped at him, narrowly avoiding the sharp metal claws. He tumbled into a pile of scrap metal and howled as jagged edges cut at him. Snag pulled himself forward a bit on his single arm, twin spotlights holding Fox firmly in their sites.

* * *

Despite the aching in her muscles Krystal had been able to run even faster than Fox. She tried to stay out of sight as she moved across the bay, slinking between discarded mechanical parts that in some cases were larger than small cars.

Fox had Snag's attention, but that wouldn't last long. Krystal hoped that she could think of something soon. If she wasn't fast enough then Fox could be killed, and she would be left alone with the monster once again.

A horrible thought occurred to her; what if Snag decided to take her again once Fox was gone? How long would she survive with that…_thing_ living inside of her? It could be ages, many weeks or even years spent locked away within her own mind. She would rather die.

But hopefully she wouldn't have to. Krystal had been badly shaken after Snag had abandoned her body, but she had heard his arrogant prattling. He hadn't weaponized his new body, but the fact that he had mentioned it meant that he had _tried_.

Krystal saw something lying amid the refuse that made her heart beat a tattoo in her chest. A huge arm was resting motionless on the ground. Lying next to it was an odd support assembly with a tactical rail welded to it, and attached to that rail was something that glinted in the dim light of Bay 3. Krystal ran her hands over the firing controls and smiled vindictively.

* * *

In the chaos of Bay 3 Snag was having a wonderful time He had integrated Aparoid technology almost seamlessly with what he'd found on the Great Fox and his new body was running perfectly. The core memory, integrated into the robot's circuitry with the technological voodoo common to Aparoid systems, was housing him quite nicely. His perceptions were no longer cluttered by the useless feedback of a living body and he felt better than he had in ages.

Now, as he raised Fox into the air with his oversized hand, Snag contemplated crushing the life out of him. His new body wasn't all that practical, but it was easily strong enough to pulverize bone and muscle into a squishy, disgusting lump.

He liked this new lofty perspective. Maybe when this was all over he could set himself up as a god somewhere. That would be entertaining.

"Hey, Snagzilla!" Krystal shouted. Snag turned his reptilian head –and the cameras mounted on it- in her direction. His biggest regret in designing this body was that he couldn't turn his eyes independently of his head.

Krystal was manhandling his half-finished second arm into position with a nasty grin. "Put the captain down. He's mine!" She thumbed the firing studs and the Gatling gun spun to life, rattling in the assembly that held it to the arm's wrist. At first Snag wondered if he had secured it properly, but the straps held.

Snag made no effort to get out of the way. He would never have been fast enough even with four limbs instead of one. Still, there was no need to worry. Snag dropped Fox (from a rather unpleasant height) and turned himself to face her. Plasma bolts flew through the air as the Gatling gun roared, bucking hard in Krystal's hands even as she struggled to hold it steady.

Ghostly blue light kindled in the robot's chest and Snag spread his arms invitingly. A wide, circular energy field sprung up in front of him as the plasma neared its mark. Bolt after bolt broke itself on the shield, splintering off in all directions and causing a dazzling lightshow. Not a single one penetrated the protective field and found its mark.

Krystal's eyes grew wide and the Gatling gun suddenly went quiet. The bay rang with the echoes of the chaos she had unleashed, albeit to little effect. "There you are!" Snag said happily. "I was hoping that you'd show up. Now I don't have to turn the bay upside-down to find you."

* * *

Fox didn't enjoy Snag dropping him to the ground any more than he had enjoyed Wolf tossing him from a ledge. His body had been so badly abused that he felt ready to fall apart at the slightest provocation. He was at the end of his rope and had virtually nothing left to give. Still, he wasn't yet ready to admit defeat.

Krystal's impressive display hadn't caused Snag the slightest bit of concern, and Fox could understand why. He remembered Slippy wondering where the kinetic thermal barrier for the engines had gone; he hadn't paid much attention to the problem at the time due to having far more immediate concerns to deal with. Now he wished he'd looked into the matter.

Fox tried to recall everything that he could about the barrier now embedded in Snag's chest. It could repel both heat and kinetic force, and could do so well enough to contain the massive heat and pressure of a running engine. It was a one-dimensional field of energy that was almost impervious to damage.

Fox was bleeding from a multitude of small cuts along his back and arms, and had come close to landing in the very same pile of scraps that had been responsible. He rolled aside as Snag's arm came down right next to him, almost crushing him by accident. Fox palmed a sharp length of steel and staggered to his feet.

Snag's arm looked similar to the larger Aparoids that Fox had seen in the past. There was a weak link in their defenses that he had exploited before, but there was no way to know if Snag had corrected the flaw.

Well, there was _one_ way to know. Fox staggered up to the arm, grabbed onto the wrist, and hauled himself up to the elbow joint. Snag didn't notice until he lifted his arm to pull himself forward again. He did an actual, honest-to-goodness double-take with a head the size of a refrigerator. "What are you doing?" he asked. "Oh, that's adorable! Look, he's like a little pirate with a knife in his teeth!"

Snag had no facial expressions to speak of, but the spotlight-eyes flickered in shock when Fox sliced through a rubber tube protruding from his elbow joint. Black sludge erupted and Fox sputtered for breath, losing his grip and falling from Snag's arm. "Let him have it!" He shouted –or tried to. His words came out as a strained cry that sounded far weaker than he would have liked.

The huge robot pitched forward as the Gatling gun spun up again. Snag howled wordlessly but was drowned out by the hail of plasma that at first had no more effect than before. It wasn't until the robot fell flat on its face that the kinetic thermal barrier was out of the way. The paper-thin shield of impervious energy was now flat against the ground, allowing Krystal's assault to rip into Snag's body.

* * *

Snag struggled uselessly as the fluid feeding the quasi-living musculature of his Aparoid parts pumped out onto the floor of Bay 3. His arm refused to respond to his commands. He looked up at Krystal and caught a blast of plasma square in the face. The delicate circuitry surrounding the core memory that housed him lit up with a huge power surge.

For the first time in his new life Snag felt real, physical pain. It overcame his mental defenses and crippled him completely. With no other mind to hide behind he was paralyzed and terrified beyond imagining. He silently trembled in agonized fear as his body was torn to bits.

Krystal, highlighted by the Gatling gun's bluish glow, presented a frightening image. Her hair flew about wildly, catching the light and giving her a ghostly aura that paled in comparison to the heat in her eyes. She was screaming something nasty, a howling specter of wrath that hungered for his life. Snag shrank away from her as best he could, cutting the images fed to him by the external cameras. He wanted to escape this body, to drift free as an immortal spirit, but for the moment he was trapped.

* * *

The assault didn't end until the Gatling gun ran out of ammunition. Krystal dropped it, weak arms trembling, and fell to her knees. The wreckage before her no longer resembled anything at all save for a pile of spare parts and half-melted steel. Krystal bared her teeth and snarled at what remained. She hauled herself to her feet and went to check on Fox, who was lying very still.

"Please wake up," Krystal begged, "Please don't leave me here alone!"

Fox groaned and opened his eyes. "Wish…granted," he sighed. Then his eyes widened. "Can't move. Can't…can't feel my legs." He winced when Krystal touched one of his legs. "Nope, I can feel them. Definitely. Must have been wishful thinking."

Krystal smiled despite the awful situation. Fox was hurt, exhausted, and would take months to recover –but he would live. They were _all _going to live, even Wolf and his team. It seemed too good to be true, a storybook ending to the nightmare that she had been trapped in. Krystal felt happier than she had in ages, a warm tingling of hope filling her.

A shiver went up her spine and the warmth vanished. "You!" A familiar voice howled. Snag sounded far away, as though he'd nearly been pushed out of the universe by what had happened to him. "You're nothing! You're _all _nothing! You're small and pathetic and I _hate you_!"

A red-hot lance of pain burrowed into her and Krystal screamed. The world became dim, backlit by an eerie orange glow that came from everywhere and nowhere. She felt as though she was falling, but Snag forced her to watch as her body stood without her consent. "We're finishing this _now_," Snag growled. He knelt beside Fox and grabbed the sharp scrap of metal that had helped destroy his mechanical body. "We'll start with Fox, then move on to Wolf. Then we'll do the rest of the crew and you are going to watch _all _of it!"

Fox watched with sad, defeated eyes as Snag held the metal to his throat. "Then, when we're finished, I'm walking you out of an airlock. I'm sick of being trapped here with all of you." Snag grabbed one of Fox's ears and pulled his head upward. "Why aren't you fighting back?" he asked. "This isn't satisfying at all. Fight me! Try to stop me!"

Fox sighed and Krystal noticed that his shirt was rapidly staining with red. He'd been cut again somehow. "How?" he asked. "I've got nothing left. I've already done everything I could." He smiled calmly. "I didn't go quietly though, did I? That's something."

Krystal seized control of her hand and refused to let go. Snag tried to push the makeshift blade into Fox's throat, but Krystal threw all of her remaining strength into resisting him. The power struggle lasted far longer than it had before. "Let go!" Snag howled, enraged at meeting further resistance. "I'll…I'll hurt you again!"

Krystal's left hand shot forward and grabbed the blade. She gritted her teeth as Snag cut her again, digging into her flesh and making her squirm. This time her will held firm and, when he tried to cut Fox again, he couldn't. "You can't win!" he taunted. "No one can help you now that Fox is out of the way. It's only a matter of time before I overpower you. You're all alone, you pathetic little creature."

"It doesn't matter!" Krystal said, snatching back control of her mouth. "You can cut me to pieces if you like, but you still won't be able to hurt Fox. I won't let you. I'm not afraid of you anymore." She allowed her telepathic senses to reach out to the emptiness of outer space. "And you know what? I've found a way to get rid of you. No airlocks will be necessary."

Snag saw what she was doing a fraction of a second too late. He tried to escape by leaving her, but Krystal held on to him and would not let go. "Don't do this!" he pleaded, "You're going to kill both of us!"

Something grabbed her wrist hard enough to draw her attention for a moment. Fox glared up at her defiantly, his hand gripping hers with a strength the rest of his body couldn't match. "Not without me," he insisted.

Krystal remembered the cryptic words in the dusty old book that had confused her before. Now, when everything else had failed her, she understood. Snag was strong, but he was also alone. She had Fox with her, and always would if they managed to survive this. She threw her mind wide open, expanding her senses to encompass as much of the empty space around the ship as she could.

She pulled Fox and Snag along with her. Her mind was linked to Snag, but she also had Fox with her. Snag had no one else to rely on.

Fox kept her from losing track of herself and drifting apart in the endless expanse of nothingness, but shared an equal amount of the punishment himself. She saw him stripped to almost nothing save the iron will that had sustained him thus far. The same happened to her in turn and it was nearly more than she could bear.

Snag howled and raged alongside her, adrift and hopelessly lost. Krystal and Fox clung to one another, each praying that they could weather the cold emptiness together. Snag's heated anger slowly grew cold and dead, but it was taking a very long time.

Krystal held on to Fox for as long as she could, but finally she collapsed and her mind gave out. She sank into the blissful calm of unconsciousness, noting that it didn't feel so different from what she had just experienced.

It was warmer, she decided. It was warmer and much less frightening. She could also tell that she wasn't alone, and that was more than enough to comfort her.


	21. Chapter 21: Finding Your Horizon

_The mental image of Fox McCloud delivering pizza is something that I will cherish forever. You can't do a barrel roll in a van! Well, you can, but you aren't supposed to and you could probably only do it once._

_In my view, _Starfox: Command_ didn't happen. Firstly because I didn't play it, and secondly because I seem to recall hearing that NONE of the endings are considered cannon. So that…means it didn't happen, as far as the actual story for the games is concerned. Fanfiction writers rejoice, your stories have not been rendered inaccurate! Yet._

_Also, I have no knowledge whatsoever about genetics or what changes in the third, eighth, or sixteenth chromosomes would do. Let's just say that in Cerinians they are the reptile genes, while all the others are mammal genes. That's totally how genes work in the Star Fox universe. Seriously._

_One more thing: sex scenes are stupid. I have yet to see one that doesn't interrupt the flow of the movie or at least distract the audience from more important things. I'm not saying that characters can't have sex –in some cases it needs to happen- but there's no reason to get too graphic. This may sound odd coming from a guy, but Hollywood is terrible at sex scenes. Seriously, it's just pathetic, like watching a surgeon try to perform open heart surgery with a sledgehammer. It's just embarrassing._

_And that's it for this story! I had a lot of fun putting these up and I may have plans for another. It would involve Fox and company coming out of retirement due to an assassination attempt on Fox's family. Can these old mercs show the newer crowd how it's done? You bet they can!_

_Just don't expect anything too terribly soon. I'd like to get some work done on other projects, you know? Thanks so much for reading along and giving feedback and all that jive. So…that's about it. I have nothing more to say, apart from my continued curiosity as to the exact nature of Leon's "insanity". It's never really been examined in depth._

_But that's something for another day. Later guys!_

* * *

Fox woke very slowly, his physical pain overcoming his desire for more rest. He looked over at where Krystal had fallen and saw that she was gone. For a few minutes he just kept as still as possible, afraid that the slightest movement would make his condition worse. He hoped that Krystal had left of her own accord and not because Snag had forced her.

Fox sat bolt upright and immediately regretted it. His ribs were bruised and his arm was probably broken, not to mention whatever was wrong with his leg. Still, he needed to convince himself that Snag was really gone for good. He had no idea how he would do that since the monster had evaded the entire crew for a very long time, but he had to try. At least he could have a look around.

"Hey, stop that!" Krystal ordered. She appeared beside him as though by magic, white box in hand. When she set it down on the floor Fox saw that it had a red cross painted on the top. "You'll only hurt yourself more. Lay back and try to relax."

"Did we get him?" Fox asked. "I hope we did, because if not then I feel like this was a lot of wasted effort."

Krystal glanced at the hulking metal monstrosity that had nearly killed them both. "I think we did," she said. "I haven't been awake for much longer than you, but I can already tell that the ship feels…different. It's like a sickness that I didn't notice until now has been cured."

"You're a sap." Fox grinned weakly. "You might need to get a wheelchair. I'm not going to be walking anywhere."

"You're not going to be doing much of anything," Krystal retorted. "You're an absolute mess. It's a good thing someone spotted our distress beacon." Fox tried to sit up again, but she pushed him back down. "Slippy and the others regained consciousness when we killed Snag. Slippy's in bad shape, but he was able to free up the long-range transmitter array. A Cornerian relief vessel happened to be in the area."

Fox felt a pinprick on his shoulder and sighed as a powerful cocktail of drugs took effect. The pain of his body became far less important than it had been a moment ago.

* * *

"Very odd," Peppy muttered as he scanned ROB's test results. Krystal was lying on a medical bed in the Cornerian cruiser _Argent Dawn_, but Fox had refused to let anyone take a look at her. It wasn't until Peppy suggested letting their personal AI run the tests that he backed down.

"I know," Fox admitted. "She's changed."

Krystal stared at her razor-sharp fingernails. They had become more like claws, and not the kind a canine was expected to have. They looked like they would be more at home on a reptile. "So what exactly happened?"

"Unknown." ROB spoke over the encrypted wavelengths of Fox's communicator rather than using the unsecured wireless transmitters that would have allowed him to use the _Argent Dawn_'s intercom system. "DNA anomalies detected in third, eighth, sixteenth chromosomes. Hypothesis: exposure to formerly unknown life form has cause rapid mutation."

"He means that Snag did something to you," Peppy explained. "We have no idea how or why. It might even have been an accident. Most of the changes are small, like abnormally high amounts of serotonin in your brain and increased bone density. Those should fade with time. The biggest change is the one on your hands, and I don't think it's going away any time soon."

Krystal sighed and clicked her nails together. "I don't like it," she said after a moment. "It doesn't make sense; Snag was a disembodied spirit, not a physical presence. He shouldn't-"

"There were a lot of things that he shouldn't have been able to do," Fox said. "He still did them. Getting sharper fingernails isn't the worst that could have happened to you."

Krystal smiled up at him prettily, which sent his heart into overdrive. "I suppose you're right."

After a moment's consideration Fox pressed the transmit button on his communicator. "ROB, have you archived these test results in your private data banks?"

"Affirmative. As per instructions, no information has been leaked to outside systems."

"Good. Destroy it. What happened stays between us and Star Wolf. No one else hears about it under any circumstances."

* * *

Once he'd sorted out Krystal's physical it was time to focus on repairing the Great Fox. The _Argent Dawn_ had enough replacement parts to start Fox and his team on a slow limp back to civilized space, but it would take another four days to make the journey. Of course, that was assuming they could convince the larger cruiser to part with certain expensive items.

Krystal found him on the bridge while he was trying to plot a new course. "Falco is supervising the repairs," she said. "He seems happy to be doing something useful. Slippy and Peppy are helping out wherever they can, but no one is up to full strength yet."

"It'll take a little time," Fox said. "It always does. We just need a nice, quiet job to keep us busy while we recover. Star Fox will be back up to full strength before too long."

"I'm glad." Krystal stood next to him and leaned over to look at his computer screen. "Planning our next destination?" she asked.

Fox shook his head and pushed the keyboard away. "I've finished it," he said. "It wasn't hard. There isn't much between here and the nearest port that we need to watch out for. I should go help with the repairs."

"I'm not so sure about that," Krystal said. She put a friendly hand on his shoulder. "The repairs could take quite a while. You have other things to take care of."

"I do?" Fox asked. "The course is set, the weapons systems are on shakedown, and the life support systems have been put in order. What else is there?" He noticed that Krystal was standing much closer than before and had her other hand around his waist.

"Captain," she said insistently. "You have _other things_ to take care of."

"What do…oh. _Oh._" Fox started to turn a very self-conscious shade of pink, but after a moment's consideration he smiled and shut off his communicator. "Falco is a great negotiator," he said. "I'm, uh, sure that he can handle buying those replacement parts."

"I'm sure that he can," Krystal said, looping her arm through his.

* * *

Krystal and Fox were alone on the bridge, having taken the night shift for themselves. They leaned against the frontal viewport and admired the stars that glimmered in the inky blackness of space. "The Cerinian view of space travel was not like yours," Krystal said. "We were afraid to think about what was above our heads. It was too big for us. We got so used to being around each other that going outside the range of telepathy was frightening."

"With good reason," Fox pointed out. "We both saw what it did to Snag. He just…fell apart out there, right in front of us." Krystal shivered next to him and moved a little closer. He found that he rather liked it. "I wouldn't worry about that too much. There are plenty of other people on this ship." He smiled fondly at a memory that popped into his head. "My father used to say that space was the answer to our problems –that no one would have to fight anymore if we could just spread out far enough."

"That doesn't sound very realistic," Krystal said.

"I think that it was, in a way." Fox pointed to a specific star. "That's where I grew up," he said. "When I was younger and unqualified to pilot anything more powerful than a pizza delivery van I would sit outside and just watch the sky. It was so big and I couldn't _wait_ to break atmo and see what it was like. My dad told me that space was the greatest gift any god could ever have given us. There's enough of it that each of us can take all he wants. Every person can have an entire horizon all to himself."

Krystal saw that Fox's eyes had misted up. "Your father would be proud of you," she said. "You're a wonderful man, Fox McCloud. Your father could never have hoped for better." He smiled and put an arm around her waist. "I have to say that I find his dream a little lonely," she admitted. "I wouldn't want an entire horizon all to myself. I'd rather share one."

"That sounds like a very good idea." Fox poked a finger at the thick, durable glass of the viewport. "We'll take that one."

"Oh! How nice," Krystal giggled. "It looks wonderful."

"I'm glad you like it. I'm also…glad you think it would be better to share it."

Krystal laughed at how serious he sounded. "I can tell. So, Captain, what do we do now?"

"Now we try and get the Great Fox up to full strength."

"And then?" she asked.

Fox kissed her, and then looked at the universe spread out before him. "Then we go and find our horizon. It's out there somewhere." He pointed again and added "Specifically right there, but I'm open to other suggestions."

"That's a good plan," Krystal said. "Lead on."

* * *

Star Wolf had been through many dangerous conflicts over the course of its less-than-morally-upright history, but had rarely come so close to death. It had been disconcerting to be so utterly helpless, but the team would undoubtedly find a way to strengthen themselves because of it. It was what they did.

Wolf, Panther, and Leon were now waiting patiently in the passenger terminal for their false identification cards to be processed. They had gone by fake names before and, being the wanted fugitives that they were, knew the value of traveling discreetly. As far as the crew of the _Argent Dawn_ knew, Wolf and his crew were just three refugees that had been picked up by the Star Fox team on some backwater planet.

Leon was sitting far away from the other members of his team, staring moodily through a small porthole. No one paid much attention to him because this was hardly unusual behavior. Leon had trouble relating to other people for many reasons, the foremost being that he was, as Wolf had once remarked, "nuttier than rat droppings in a peanut factory." Panther and Wolf had gotten used to seeing him pull away from social interaction and always dismissed it as business as usual.

Normally they would have been right. Leon often tried to ignore the world after completing a mission, and what had happened on the Great Fox was not so different than a tour of active combat duty. Leon had always separated himself from others because he had no idea what he was supposed to feel after the fighting was over. Mostly he felt disappointed, which he knew was not normal.

This time, however, he was not seeking isolation because he didn't know what to say or how to act; he was trying to carry on a private conversation. Anyone that had been paying attention might have noticed that he was talking to himself.

"I wish this could last," Leon said quietly. He absentmindedly brushed lint from his flight suit. "I like mercenary work, but it won't last forever. We almost died this time. We could just as easily die _next_ time. I'd rather avoid that."

His eyes widened slightly. "I could keep that from happening," he whispered. "I _know_ I could. I just need time to think of a way. Life doesn't have to end with a depressurized cockpit. I can find a better way to do things. I just…I just need the time."

Leon glanced over at Wolf and Panther, who were both completely silent. Wolf was far too injured to say very much and Panther was not feeling talkative. "In the meantime, I'll do my job." Leon giggled so quietly that even he could hardly hear himself. "I'll be a good mercenary for as long as it takes. One day I'll change the way this works. I'll make it safer for us. Until then…."

A shiver took him and Leon fought to remain still. "Until then no one needs to know," he said. "Until then Wolf and Panther are the top priority. It does no good to improve mercenary work if the people you want to protect are killed too soon."

"I'm glad you see it my way." Leon smiled and looked through the porthole again. He could see his reflection smiling back at him. It wasn't a smile that any sane person would have considered friendly or inviting. "I look forward to working with you. We'll be the best of friends, you and I."


End file.
